IND vs SA: Rohit Sharma takes over from Virat Kohli as new ODI captain, BCCI names Test squad

BCCI has made a big announcement as it named the men’s squad for the South Africa series. Recently named the T20I captain, ace opener Rohit Sharma has now also been given the charge for the ODI team going forward. Replacing Virat Kohli as the ODI skipper, Sharma’s tenure will begin from three ODIs with South Africa next month.

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” the board posted on Wednesday, October 8.

Sharma made a winning start to his T20 captaincy with a 3-0 clean sweep against New Zealand in the recently-concluded series. It had been speculated that Sharma would also replace Kohli as the ODI captain soon. Sharma has also been promoted to Kohli’s deputy in Tests as India’s new vice-captain. As interim captain during Kohli’s absence, Sharma won eight out of 10 ODIs including the memorable Asia Cup win in 2018.

Stepping down from ODI captaincy after 4 years, Kohli is one of the most successful captains in the format with a victory rate of over 70% with 65 wins and 27 defeats in 95 matches. Kohli is behind only MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohd Azharuddin in the number of ODIs played as skipper. His ODI captaincy highlights were the ICC Champions Trophy campaign 2017 where India was runners-up to eventual champions Pakistan.

Meanwhile, BCCI also named the squad for three Test matches against South Africa beginning from Boxing Day, December 26. Kohli will lead the team with Sharma as vice-captain.

Squad for IND vs SA 3 Test Series: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (WK), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj.

Four standby players have been named: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar and Arzan Nagwaswalla.