In a big blow to team India, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav have been ruled out of the India vs South Africa T20 series set to start on June 9 in Delhi. Rishabh Pant will lead the side in Rahul's absence. Hardik Pandya has been named as vice-captain. Rahul will be out owing to a right groin injury, whereas Kuldeep will miss out after getting hit on his right hand while batting in the nets last evening.
As per BCCI, both Rahul and Kuldeep will now report to the NCA where the medical team will assess them further and decide on the future course of treatment.
Rahul and Kuldeep's replacement have not been named yet.
The T20 series will be played with no restrictions as far as the crowd capacity is concerned, as the BCCI has allowed 100% crowd capacity. There will be no bio-bubble too. However, the players will go through regular Covid-19 tests.
The series will be played across five venues from 9th June to 19th June.
Venues
- New Delhi
- Cuttack
- Bengaluru
- Visakhapatnam
- Rajkot
India squad: Rishabh Pant (Captain)(wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
South Africa squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen and Marco Jansen.
