Jadhav, Thakur return for SA ODIs; Umesh, Rahul miss out

A batting-heavy India squad was announced for the South Africa ODIs, starting February 1. © AFP

Kedar Jadhav, who recently suffered a hamstring injury, returns to the India squad for the six-match ODI series against South Africa beginning in February 2018. As many as ten frontline batsmen, including Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni, are part of a batting heavy 17-member India squad announced by the MSK Prasad-led selection panel on Saturday (December 23). Shardul Thakur, the Mumbai pacer, also returns to the squad.

KL Rahul and Umesh Yadav are a couple of prominent names to miss out while Suresh Raina, who recently passed the Yo-Yo test, hasn't yet found favour with the selectors.

India squad: Virat Kohli (c) Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur

Shreyas Iyer, who recently scored two successive half-centuries against Sri Lanka in his maiden ODI series, retains his place, as does Dinesh Karthik who could double up as a back-up wicketkeeper for MS Dhoni. Rahul's Karnataka team-mate Manish Pandey also features in the outfit, while Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli make up the top three, with Ajinkya Rahane as the possible back-up opener.

Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel are the two all-rounders in the lineup which also has two wrist-spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal along with four pacemen - Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Shardul. India's frontline spinners in the Test format - Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja - have been left on the limited-overs sidelines yet again while the squad features as many as eight members from the 17-man Test squad for the three Test series preceding the ODI leg.

The ODI series gets underway on February 1 in Durban, four days after the conclusion of the third Test. The second ODI will be played in Centurion on February 4, the third in Cape Town on February 7, while the fourth and fifth ODIs will be held on February 10 and 13 in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth respectively. The final ODI will be played in Centurion on February 16, followed by a three-match T20I series which concludes on February 24.