India Squad for South Africa T20I, ODI Series (Predicted): Dhawan may lead in one-dayers, seniors may get rest

Mumbai, September 12: Shikhar Dhawan is likely to lead India in the upcoming ODI series against South Africa at home.

The captaincy will be handed over to Dhawan as the T20 World Cup-bound players are likely to be rested for the ODIs, the BCCI sources indicated.

The eighth edition of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 is set to take place from October 16 to November 13 this year in Australia.

Moreover, VVS Laxman is likely to be with the team as a coach in absence of head coach Rahul Dravid but Dravid could be returning for the T20I leg of the series against South Africa.

India will play three T20Is and as many ODIs against South Africa starting September 28 as their warm-up for the T20 World Cup 2022 hits a series note. Here too, India might be trying out some combinations and permutations in the run up to the showpiece event.

The first T20I will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on September 28. The second T20I will be played on October 2, 2022, Gandhi Jayanti, to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Guwahati, followed by the last T20I at Indore on October 4.

The action will then shift to Lucknow on October 6 where the ODI series will get underway, where Shikhar Dhawan will lead the squad.

Ranchi and Delhi will host the second and third ODI, respectively, on October 9 and 11.

So here are the India squad for South Africa ODI and T20I series (predicted).

1 India Squad for South Africa ODIs

1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Sanju Samson, 6, Ishan Kishan, 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Venkatesh Iyer, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Mohammed Siraj, 12 Rahul Chahar, 13 Prasidh Krishna, 14 Shardul Thakur, 15 Rahul Tripathi.

Of course, if the selectors are resting only the seniors from the one-dayers then some younger names like Rishabh Pant or Deepak Hooda might get selected for the ODIs.

2 India Squad for South Africa T20Is

In all likelihood, this will be a full-strength India squad that will also feature in the T20 World Cup 2022.

1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal, 12 Dinesh Karthik, 13 Deepak Hooda, 14 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 15 Arshdeep Singh.

3 When is the team selection

The squads for the home series against South Africa, Australia and the T20 World Cup 2022 could be selected on September 16.

4 India’s schedule after home series

India will depart to Australia after the home ODIs against South Africa and will play a few warm-up matches before hitting the tournament proper with a match against Pakistan.