Rohit replaces Kohli as India’s ODI captain

Experienced opener Rohit Sharma was on Wednesday named India’s ODI captain by the BCCI as the national board announced the Test squad for its upcoming tour of South Africa, starting December 26

Rohit will replace Virat Kohli, who stepped down as T20I captain after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, as India’s limited-overs skipper. The 34-year-old Rohit recently led India in the T20I series against New Zealand at home.

While announcing his decision to step down from T20I captaincy, Kohli had expressed his wish to continue leading the ODI side until the 2023 Men’s World Cup in India. However, the Chetan Sharma-led senior selection committee announced that Rohit, who was previously the vice-captain, would lead India’s ODI & T20I sides.

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” the BCCI said in a statement. While Kohli will continue to lead the Test team, Rohit has been elevated as the vice-captain in the longest format, replacing Ajinkya Rahane.

However, Rahane has managed to hold on to his spot in the 18-member squad picked for the three-match series in South Africa. Meanwhile, BCCI’s statement mentioned that Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Rahul Chahar were unavailable for selection due to injuries and said that they are undergoing rehabilitation.

SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj; STAND-BY PLAYERS: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar and Arzan Nagwaswalla