Team India sets off for South Africa cricket tour

The Indian cricket team departed from Bengaluru on Tuesday night for their tour to South Africa.

The Men in Blue, including Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, head coach Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Siraj among others departed from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru for the tour.

The all-format tour of South Africa will kickstart from December 10 with a three-match T20I series which will go on till December 14. From December 17, the ODI leg of the white-ball series will start which will conclude on September 21.

Seniors like skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah will miss the white-ball leg of the all-format series. Suryakumar Yadav, the number one T20I batter will lead the T20I team while KL Rahul will be captaining the ODI team. Youngsters like Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Sai Sudarshan and Rajat Patidar have received call-ups for the ODI squad.

Senior players will return for the two-match Test series, with the first Test in Centurion from December 26 onwards and the second Test at Cape Town from January 3 next year. This red-ball leg of the series will be the most anticipated one for Indian fans as they are yet to register a Test series win in South Africa.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Monday announced their squads against India for the multi-format series at home, beginning December 10.

Fast bowler Nandre Burger and batters David Bedingham and Tristan Stubbs received their maiden call-ups to South Africa's Test squad for the India series; wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne has been recalled.

Aiden Markram will captain the T20I and ODI squads, while the Test squad will be led by Temba Bavuma.

Bavuma and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada have been rested from the white-ball series. Anrich Nortje, who was ruled out of the World Cup due to a lower back stress fracture, is out of the game in all formats and has no timetable for rehabilitation.

Stubbs has been added to the Test squad for the first time, along with batter David Bedingham and fast bowler Nandre Burger.

India's squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (Wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.

India's squad for 3 T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.

India's squad for 3 ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (Wk), Sanju Samson (Wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.

(ANI)