Hardik Pandya makes his comeback to the Indian team as BCCI announced a 18-member squad for the series against the Proteas. Sunrisers Hyderabad's pace sensation Umran Malik and Punjab Kings' Arshdeep Singh have also been added in the squad. Malik, who was retained by SRH, has had a breakout season, picking 21 wickets in 13 fixtures so far and often clocking speeds in excess of 150 kmph. Arshdeep meanwhile, has enhanced his reputation as a death bowler at PBKS, and has picked 10 wickets this season.
With several seniors missing for the T20Is as they prepare for the fifth Test against England in Edgbaston, KL Rahul has been named captain for the limited-overs series against South Africa.Among the notable returnees to the T20I squad are Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik. For the all-important fifth Test against England in Birmingham from July 1, there are a few changes to the squad that took the 2-1 lead back in July-September 2021. Shubman Gill is in, in place of Mayank Agarwal; Shreyas Iyer - who made his impressive Test debut earlier this year - takes a middle-order slot ahead of the injured Ajinkya Rahane; KS Bharat is the second keeper in the squad instead of Wriddhiman Saha, and the pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw, who were called up back then as injury replacements, have not been included.
India's T20I squad: KL Rahul (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
India's Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna
