The Indian men’s cricket team’s tour of South Africa’s preparations have begun in terrible fashion with Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma suffering an injury during a training session in Mumbai on Sunday.
Rohit has been ruled out of the South Africa Tests. There still is no clarity about his availability for the ODIs against the Proteas.
"Team India Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma sustained a left hamstring injury during his training session here in Mumbai yesterday. He has been ruled out of the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa. Priyank Panchal will replace Rohit Sharma in the Test squad," a BCCI statement on Monday evening read.
The BCCI have asked Priyank Panchal to join the team hotel in quarantine tonight (Monday) as cover. He captained the India A side on the recent tour of SA. The Gujarat opener scored 120 runs for India A at an average of 40 in three innings with a high score of 96 against South Africa A.
He has played in 100 first-class matches, scoring 7011 runs at an average of 45.52 and has got 24 centuries to his name.
India are already without the young opener Shubman Gill due to injury.
Rohit was rested for the two-match Test series against New Zealand, which India won 1-0. His last international game was the T20s against the Kiwis and his last Test match was against England.
Rohit replaced Ajinkya Rahane as the vice-captain of India in red-ball cricket.
The Indian team are set to depart on 16 December after completing three-days of quarantine in Mumbai.
The report further added that the BCCI have relaxed the bio-security protocols in Mumbai and players who will travel with their families have not checked in to the hotel and are under home quarantine. Virat Kohli is also yet to check in for the same reason.
India are slated to play three Tests and as many ODIs in South Africa. India begin the tour on 26 December at the Centurion with the first Test.
India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
(With Cricbuzz inputs)
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