Both the former captains have the potential to be the leading batsmen for their respective sides.
This will be the first ODI series for Kohli after Rohit Sharma was named captain by the Indian selectors in December.
Even though Sharma had to pull out of the series in South Africa due to injury, the captaincy was handed over to KL Rahul, not Kohli.
Kohli, who captained India in 95 ODIs with a 65-27 win-loss ratio, made it clear after India’s Test series loss last week that he was looking at the coming ODIs purely “for the player”. point of view”.
A snippet from #TeamIndia’s headshots shoot ahead of the ODI series against South Africa. … https://t.co/YtBhKzMN5m
—BCCI (@BCCI) 1642478819000
Kohli, who later resigned from Test captaincy, said: “You are clearly very motivated and motivated to perform in any match you play for India. As a person I can certainly say that. I can look forward to the ODI series and I am motivated to perform in those ODIs.”
De Kock was named South Africa’s long-time white-ball captain in February 2020 and was named Test captain for four matches in the previous season. But he did not seem comfortable in the role and last March it was decided to put Temba Bavuma in charge of the white-ball teams, with Dean Elgar taking over as Test captain.
De Kock, who had already missed the last two Tests against India on paternity leave, announced after the first Test last month that he was retiring from Test cricket, although he was available for limited overs games. are.
The series marks the return of de Kock for the first time since becoming a father to a daughter. He fell in two separate shots in his final Test match and South Africa will be hoping for the return of the free-flowing, motivated batsman, who scored three centuries in three consecutive matches against India eight seasons ago.
ODI Mode We are here at Boland Park to start preparing for ODIs #TeamIndia | #SAvIND https://t.co/psMVDaNwbc
—BCCI (@BCCI) 16424083060000
The series is not part of the International Cricket Council’s World Cup Super League, but South Africa would be particularly keen to beat Australia 3–0 in March 2020 to register their first one-day series win, before cricket was halted by the coronavirus pandemic. was effectively closed. ,
Since then, series against India and England have been canceled due to the virus, they have lost against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and have had to share the honors against Ireland and the Netherlands.
One match was lost, one won and the other rained out in Ireland and the first match of a series against the Netherlands was washed out and the remaining matches were postponed as South Africa was placed on the coronavirus travel “red list”.
India won only two ODI series played at home in 2021 against England and against Sri Lanka.
squads
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (capt), Keshav Maharaj (vice-captain), Quinton de Kock (wk), Zubair Hamza, Marco Jensen, Sisanda Magala, Jenman Malan, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo , Dwayne Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabrez Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verne (wk)
India: KL Rahul (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Pranand Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant (wk), Mohammad Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jayant Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav
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