While Rohit Sharma will miss the Tests in South Africa, the ODIs after that will see Virat Kohli being unavailable for the Indian team. Kohli, who was removed from white-ball captaincy recently, is understood to have informed the BCCI already about the decision.
India and South Africa will play 3 ODIs after the Test series.
Kohli is going to miss the ODIs as he is taking time off to celebrate his daughter Vamika's first birthday. Vamika was born on 11 January last year and Kohli is planning a holiday with his family after the conclusion of the Test series, according to a report in Times of India.
Last year, when Vamika was born, Kohli had gone on paternity leave after the first Test in Australia in Adelaide. India had lost that game before the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane led the side to a historic series win against Australia.
The final Test of the tour will be begin on 11 January with the ODIs set to commence from 19th. The ODI squad is yet to be announced for the South Africa series. India and SA were also slated to play 4 T20Is but amid Omicron the tour had to be pushed back from 17 December to 26th resulting in the T20s getting dropped from the plan.
Kohli had been rested for the T20 series against New Zealand at home as well and the first of two Tests before returning for the Mumbai game, which India won handsomely. Before that he led India in the 2021 T20 World Cup, his last set of games as captain in white-ball cricket for the national team.
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.
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