KL Rahul confirms Rishabh Pant, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s selection in India’s ODI XI vs South Africa

Indian national ODI team captain KL Rahul has confirmed the selection of star batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad and star wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant in the playing XI against South Africa.

Team India and Team South Africa are scheduled to compete in a three-match ODI series. The ODI series will be hosted at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi on Sunday, November 30.

The next two matches will be played at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Ranchi and the ACA-VDCA cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, December 3 and Saturday, December 6.

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He is good enough to play as a specialist batsman – KL Rahul in Rishabh Pant

Rahul has been appointed as captain of Team India for the ODI series against the Proteas. This happened because captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain were ruled out due to their injuries.

The departure of key players from the starting XI means that new names will get a chance against the South African national cricket team.

Shubman Gill could be replaced by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the top order, while Shreyas Iyer’s No.4 could be replaced by Rishabh Pant, Tilak Varma or Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Speaking in the pre-match press conference, KL Rahul hinted that Rishabh Pant is likely to be a regular in the playing XI, and may keep wicket as well.

“As for Rishabh, he is good enough to play as a specialist batsman but we will see tomorrow. We are still discussing the starting line-up, we will finalize it this evening. Rishabh has missed (from the ODIs) due to injuries, we know what he brings to the team. You will know tomorrow but if he plays he will take the gloves,” Rahul said.

Ruturaj Gaikwad is an exceptional player – KL Rahul

Ruturaj Gaikwad has played 23 T20Is and 6 ODIs for India, making his last ODI cricket appearance on 19 December 2023, in Gqeberha, and his last T20I outing was against Zimbabwe in Harare on 13 July 2024.

He has now made his return to India on the back of his heroics for India A against South Africa A, where he slammed 210 runs in the last series.

While talking about Gaikwad, KL Rahul praised the right-hander and said that they are looking forward to giving him a chance in the upcoming series. He said:

“Ruturaj Gaikwad is an exceptional player. The dynamics of our top 5-6 in ODIs is like that, it’s very stable. But he has done well in whatever limited opportunities he has been given. I’m looking forward to giving him a chance in this series.”

I can’t give a definite answer – KL Rahul

KL Rahul also opened up on the Indian batsmen’s struggles against the Proteas spinners in the Test series, which resulted in the hosts suffering a humiliating clean sweep. He said:

“I can’t give a specific answer, but we realize we didn’t play well. It won’t happen overnight; there are a lot of reasons. How can we improve individually? What technical changes can we make? We can look for answers individually.”

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