Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan returns for the ODI series against South Africa

The 15-man squad for the 3 match One day international series against South Africa starting from 12^th March has been announced.

Virat Kohli who had a disappointing New Zealand tour will lead the side and will look to return to form. Shikhar Dhawan who sustained shoulder injury during ODI series against Australia returns to squad. He featured in the DY Patil T20 tournament and made a good contribution in the finals. Prithivi Shaw got starts but failed to convert into big scores has been retained.

The middle order comprises of Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant. Hardik Pandya who had a back surgery in October 2019 and has not featured in international cricket for the Indian team since the 3^rd T20I match against South Africa at Bengaluru last year. During the recently concluded DY Patil T20 tournament, Hardik had scores of 46, 105, 38 and 158*. He will add strength to the bowling and batting department.

He will take replacing Shivam Dube. In the pace bowling department, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini is there in the squad. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will feature for the first time since the West Indies series in 2019. He also featured in DY Patil Stadium and looked fit.

In the spin bowling department, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav has been included. Shubman Gill has been included as the third back up opener.

Rohit Sharma who suffered calf injury during the 5^th T20I match against New Zealand will miss the series. He missed the ODI and Test series which was badly by the Indian team.

Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Shardul Thakur has been dropped from the squad which featured in ODI series that took place in New Zealand. Mohammed Shami has been rested from the squad. The first ODI will start on 12^th March at Dharamshala, 2^nd one at Lucknow on 15^th and final ODI to be played at Kolkata on 18^th.

India will be looking to return to winning ways after being whitewashed by New Zealand 0-3. South Africa is high on confidence after whitewashing Australia 3-0 in ODI series.

Here we look at the 15-man ODI squad to face South Africa

Shikhar Dhawan, Prithivi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.