Shami and Thakur included for South Africa ODIs

There was no room for KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin in India's 17-man squad for the six-match One-day International series in South Africa, to be played in February 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Saturday (December 23).

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were expectedly a part of the team and are expected to be in charge of the spin department. Axar Patel also found a place in the side that will be led by Virat Kohli, who returns after being rested for the limited-overs leg of Sri Lanka’s tour of India in November-December this year.

Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur, who missed Mumbai's Ranji Trophy 2017-18 quarterfinal against Karnataka because of injury, were included in the touring party.

Kedar Jadhav, who missed the limited-overs matches against Sri Lanka because of a hamstring injury, returned to the batsman-heavy side that has nine frontline batsmen including MS Dhoni, as well as Hardik Pandya, the allrounder.

Siddarth Kaul and Washington Sundar, who had been drafted into the side for the games against Sri Lanka, made way for the retuning first-choice players.

The ODI series begins on February 1 in Durban, four days after the conclusion of the third Test and the three-match Twenty20 International series will be played from February 18.

Schedule

Feb 1: First ODI in Durban
Feb 4: Second ODI in Centurion
Feb 7: Third ODI in Cape Town
Feb 10: Fourth ODI in Johannesburg
Feb 13: Fifth ODI in Port Elizabeth
Feb 16: Sixth ODI in Centurion

Squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur.