Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have all recovered from their injures and have been included in India’s 15-man ODI squad for the upcoming home series against South Africa.
Pandya had undergone a surgery after suffering a lower-back injury five months ago while Dhawan injured his shoulder during the Australia ODIs at the start of the year. Senior seam bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar had been recovering from hernia surgery since December last year.
Hardik has been in great form since returning to competitive cricket in the DY Patil T20 tournament, where he hit 158 off 55 balls the other day.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma was kept out of the mix with the limited overs vice-captain still recovering from a calf injury he suffered during the fifth T20I of the New Zealand tour at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. Kedar Jadhav was also dropped from the squad.
The 3-match ODI series will start on 12 March in Dharamshala and then the second game is on 15 March in Lucknow. The final fixture will be played in Kolkata on 18 March.
This is the last of the international assignments for the Indian team before the 2020 IPL season starts on 29 March.
India’s ODI Squad vs SA
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.
(More to follow)
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