Offspinner Jayant Yadav and pacer Navdeep Saini have been added to the Indian ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series against South Africa, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday (January 12).
While Yadav has been inducted in the squad as a replacement for Washington Sundar, who has been ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19, Saini has been included as a back-up for pacer Mohammed Siraj, who suffered a hamstring injury during the second Test against South Africa and was ruled out of the ongoing third game.
“Team India off-spinner Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the forthcoming ODI series against South Africa after testing positive for COVID-19 during the camp in Bengaluru. Sundar was supposed to travel to Cape Town with the ODI members on Wednesday and join the rest of the squad ahead of the ODI series starting January 19th,” the BCCI said in a statement.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jayant Yadav as replacement for Sundar. The Committee also added fast bowler Navdeep Saini to the ODI squad as a back-up for Mohammed Siraj who is still recovering from his hamstring injury that he sustained in the 2nd Test against South Africa in Johannesburg,” it added.
Yadav, 31, has played only one ODI for India. He recently featured in the second Test against New Zealand in December and emerged with a a four-wicket haul in the second innings.
On the other hand, Saini, 29, last played an ODI against Sri Lanka in July 2021.
In the series of India A against South Africa A recently, Saini impressed the selectors having picked up 11 wickets.
The first two ODIs of the three-match ODI series will be played at Boland Park in Paarl on January 19 and 21 while the final match will be staged at Newlands, Cape Town on January 23.
The following T20I series will be held in June, later this year.
Updated ODI squad:
KL Rahul (Captain), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jayant Yadav, Navdeep Saini.