Hardik Pandya Returns As India Announce Squad For South Africa ODIs

India, on Sunday, announced their squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. The series gets underway on March 12 in Dharamsala before Lucknow and Kolkata host the next two games on March 15 and 18 respectively. The series against South Africa will be India’s last before the Indian Premier League (IPL) starts on March 29.

With Rohit Sharma not fit yet, Prithvi Shaw has retained his spot in the team while veteran Shikhar Dhawan has returned to the squad after missing the New Zealand tour with an injury. Shaw had made his ODI debut in New Zealand but failed to impress. Mayank Agarwal, who too had made his ODI debut in New Zealand, failed to retain his place.

Allrounder Hardik Pandya has also earned a recall after recovering from a back injury that did not let him play for India since September. He recently returned to action in the DY Patil T20 tournament and impressed straightaway by hammering two whirlwind centuries in addition to picking up a five-wicket haul.

Fast-bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar has returned to the team too. The pacer missed the home ODI series against Australia and the New Zealand tour due to an injury. Mohammed Shami, on the other hand, has been rested for the three-match series.

Young batsman Shubman Gill has received his second call-up from the ODI team. He received his first one when India toured New Zealand last year. Gill played two games before being dropped. In between, he received his maiden Test call-up but did not make his debut.

India will be looking to bounce back against South Africa after the disastrous tour of New Zealand. The Virat Kohli-suffered crushing whitewashes in the three-match ODI series and the two-match Test series after sweeping the five-match T20I series.

India squad:

Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

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