KL Rahul to lead, Jadeja, Gaikwad, and Pant return to India's ODI Squad against South Africa

Overview

• India announced its ODI squad for the 2025 series against South Africa, which has some major changes
• While Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will not feature due to their injuries, Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah have made themselves unavailable
• Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Tilak Varma have returned, while Mohammed Siraj isn't in the squad

India announced its ODI squad for the 2025 series against South Africa, which has some major changes. While Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will not feature due to their injuries, Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah have made themselves unavailable. Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Tilak Varma have returned, while Mohammed Siraj isn't in the squad.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two of India's most experienced players in the ODI setup, will continue to play. Gaikwad performed well in the series against South Africa A, where he won the Player of the Series Award. Along with him, Tilak did well in the series and was recalled to the ODI setup.

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As Gill and Iyer are out of the series due to injuries, a new captain has been named for the series. KL Rahul will lead the side in the absence of the captain and the vice-captain. Likewise, Rishabh Pant has returned to the side for the first time since the ODI series against Sri Lanka.

Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, and Mohammed Siraj to not feature in the ODI series

Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah will not feature in the series. Axar and Bumrah have reportedly made themselves unavailable for the series. It looks like Siraj is either rested or dropped from the series. Given Axar's absence, Jadeja has returned to the ODI side for the first time since the Champions Trophy win.

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India's ODI squad for the 2025 series against South Africa -

KL Rahul (C), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad Tilak Varma, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna