India's squad for home South Africa Tests announced; Pant, Akash Deep return

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 5 (ANI): The return of wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant and pacer Akash Deep were the highlights as the Indian squad for the two-match Test series against South Africa at home was announced on Wednesday.
The two-match Test series between India and ICC World Test Champions South Africa will commence on November 14, with the first Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The second Test will take place at ACA Stadium in Guwahati.
The top-order will feature the rock-solid opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, with Sai Sudharsan, skipper Shubman Gill, Pant, and Ravindra Jadeja as some of the certainties. Besides them are Dhruv Jurel as a back-up wicketkeeper-batter option and Devdutt Padikkal as an option for the top order as well.
Pant returns after healing from his injured foot suffered during the fourth Test in England and got himself some game time as India A's captain during the ongoing two unofficial Tests against South Africa, scoring 17 and 90 in India's win in the first game at Bengaluru. He will also be featured in the second game, starting tomorrow.
Akash Deep, who also experienced fitness issues during the England series, missed out on the home Tests against West Indies in October and gained game time by playing the Irani Cup for Rest of India and two rounds of the Ranji Trophy for Bengal, taking seven wickets and scoring 90 runs across five innings.
The other spin bowling all-rounders in the squad are Washington Sundar and Axar Patel, while Nitish Kumar Reddy is a pace bowling all-round option. Teams could choose any of these alongside Jadeja as per the conditions, with Washington and Nitish having featured in both West Indies Tests at home and Axar sitting out.
Kuldeep Yadav is the spin specialist within the team and will make up a world-class bowling attack with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash.
The three India 'A' team one-dayers willl also take place between November 13 and 19, with Tilak Varma captaining the side and Ruturaj Gaikwad being the vice-captain. Capped Indian stars like Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kisan, Khaleel Ahmed, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh will also be a part of the team.
However, Team India's one-format stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who would be wanting some match rhythm ahead of the ODIs from November 30, are not a part of the India 'A' one-dayers squad, with the matches taking place in Rajkot.
India's Test squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK) (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep
India A's squad for one-day team: Tilak Varma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Vipraj Nigam, Manav Suthar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Prabhsimran Singh (WK). (ANI)