Dhawan named captain for India’s upcoming ODI series against South Africa, maiden call-ups for Patidar, Mukesh

New Delhi: Senior left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan on Sunday was named captain of India’s squad which will play three ODIs against South Africa on October 6, 9 and 11 in Lucknow, Ranchi and New Delhi respectively.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee has also given maiden ODI call-ups to middle-order batter Rajat Patidar and pacer Mukesh Kumar. Patidar’s career has been on an upswing since making a breathtaking 112 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 Eliminator against the Lucknow Super Giants at Kolkata.

Patidar went on to score 122 and 30 not out in Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy final win over Mumbai at Bengaluru. Recently, he scored two centuries, one of which was a mammoth 176, in four innings of India A’s multi-day series against New Zealand A to be the top run-scorer for the hosts with 319 runs at an average of 106.33. He also made 45 not out and 20 in one-day matches against New Zealand A in Chennai.

Mukesh, the right-arm medium pacer who represents Bengal in domestic cricket, picked up nine wickets at an average of 21.78 in the multi-day series against New Zealand A, including taking 5/86 on day one of the series. More recently, he rattled a famed Saurashtra batting line-up with his deadly spell of 4/23 for the Rest of India in the ongoing Irani Cup final in Rajkot.

Interestingly, batter Shreyas Iyer, pace all-rounder Deepak Chahar and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who are travelling reserves in India’s squad for the Men’s T20 World Cup to be held later in Australia, have been included in the ODI squad with no member of the main squad to take part in the series as they depart for Australia on October 6.

Left-arm spin all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed, who had been called in as a replacement for the injured Washington Sundar in the 3-0 ODI series triumph in Zimbabwe but didn’t get a game, retains his place in the squad, and so does right-handed batter, Rahul Tripathi. Pacer Avesh Khan also comes back into the ODI fold after missing the last few matches of the T20 Asia Cup 2022 due to illness.

India’s ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer (vice-captain), Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar