Rohit, Kohli to sit out of white-ball leg of SA tour

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have asked the Indian cricket board (BCCI) to not consider them for the white-ball leg of the South Africa tour. This meant the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, had to name three different captains for three formats for the month-long tour.
While Suryakumar Yadav continues to lead the T20I team in the absence of both Rohit and Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul has been handed the ODI captaincy. Rohit will be back as captain in the two Tests, with Jasprit Bumrah being named his deputy. Bumrah too has made a comeback having last played a Test more than 17 months back.
Mohammed Shami has been included in the Test team subject to fitness. While the BCCI didn’t specify the nature of his injury, sources said the medical team has conveyed to selectors that the pacer has a good chance of being fit for the Tests.
It has been learnt that BCCI and the selectors requested Rohit to play the T20Is keeping the upcoming T20 World Cup in mind. Rohit, however, said he was not keen. Kohli too has asked for an indefinite break from white-ball cricket, while Rahul has been dropped from the T20I team.
Interestingly, Axar Patel has also been dropped from the T20I squad. Ravindra Jadeja has been appointed the vice-captain. Ostensibly, Bumrah has also been rested for white-ball cricket on this tour.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar are the only players to be picked across formats. The selectors have decided to move on from Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the longest format. The selectors have got Shreyas Iyer in the middle order, with KL Rahul agreeing to don the gloves in Tests. Rahul was dropped from the Test squad midway through the home series against Australia earlier this year. Ishan Kishan will be the second wicketkeeper.
With a question mark on Shami’s availability, Prasidh Krishna has been kept in the Test squad. Shardul Thakur has been retained to perform allround duties down the order.
Meanwhile, left-handed batter Rinku Singh’s impressive T20I performances have earned him a maiden ODI call-up.
THE SQUADS
Tests: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna.
T20Is: Jaiswal, Gill, Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Iyer, Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jadeja (vc), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Siraj, Mukesh, Deepak Chahar.
ODIs: Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Iyer, Rahul (c; wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Sundar, Kuldeep, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep, Chahar