India squad for South Africa series to be announced after Delhi Test

What's the story?

After a lot of speculation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India have finally picked a date for the selection of the squad for the South Africa tour.

According to a senior BCCI official, the decision will be made after the conclusion of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.

"The idea was to wait a bit and pick a team either during the finishing stages of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Ferozeshah Kotla or wait till the game ends. There is no hurry as most of the players pick themselves and it is just a few spots here and there that need to be looked into before making the final call," said the official to Cricket Next.

In case you didn't know...

The squad was initially supposed to be picked on November 27, along with the selection of the squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka.

However, according to reports, Amitabh Chaudhary was unable to attend the meeting, which led to the delay.

The details:

The third Test between India and Sri Lanka will begin on December 2 in Delhi. After winning the second Test with ease, India will look to clinch the series in the final Test.

Apart from Shikhar Dhawan and Mohammed Shami's return, there were no changes made to the squad for the 3rd Test.

On the other hand, the ODI squad saw a big change as Virat Kohli was handed a much-needed rest ahead of the South Africa tour. Rohit Sharma was named as the stand-in captain. Apart from that, there were no surprise inclusions or exclusions.

What's next?

The squad will most likely be picked on December 7, i.e after the conclusion of the final Test.

Author's take:

It will be interesting to see who MSK Prasad and co decide to pick for the all-important series against South Africa.

While Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will be the two main spin bowling all-rounders in the squad, Kuldeep Yadav's place in the squad is a big question mark. He might be replaced with Jasprit Bumrah, given the nature of the South African pitches.