India vs South Africa ODI series preview: The hosts’ desperate attempt to revamp after test series disappointment

After what was yet another embarrassing whitewash in tests at home, the Indian team has little time to switch, but must quickly do so as they take on a high flying South African side when they lock horns in the 3 match odi series that begins in Ranchi on Sunday.

India would welcome Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as they play a home ODI after 9 long months. KL Rahul, who came a cropper in the test series, will have additional responsibility as he leads the side in the absence of Shubman Gill. Shreyas Iyer too is currently recovering and it will be interesting to see who fills up his slot. 

The lower middle order looks a bit iffy with Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, who makes his ODI comeback since the champions trophy and Washington Sundar completing it. Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant are the other back up wicket keepers and the latter might just make his playing 11 comeback.

The bowling too looks a bit weak without Jasprit Bumrah, whose non selection continues to baffle fans every time and Mohammad Siraj, who also continues to be sidelined. Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna along with Kuldeep Yadav will be keen to make the South African batsmen dance to their tunes as a revenge for the tests.

The visitors though are on cloud nine at the moment and to add an ODI series win against India would be an achievement of gargantuan proportion. Bavuma would like to leave the Indian shores with two bilateral trophies and the addition of Quinton De Kock, Dewald Brewis and Matthew Breetzke will boost as the regulars have already played the test series. Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj have experience playing in India, but the absence of Tristian Stubbs from the Odi setup .

“Obviously, it was a disappointing two weeks for us, but we had a couple of days now to reflect and I think the important thing now is to give all our energy into the white-ball team," Morkel said. "We've been playing a lot of good white-ball cricket. It's a couple of new faces, but fresh energy into the squad now with Virat and Rohit and them coming back. Excited for the next couple of weeks now with playing white ball cricket." Coach Morne Morkel was quoted saying.

Even though most of the white-ball attention is on the T20 format, with India looking to defend their World Cup title at home in a couple of months, the odi series has its own importance as India would like to get back to winning ways. The first odi will be played on the 30th in Ranchi and then the teams will travel to Raipur and Vizag to play the second and third odi which will be held on December 3 and 6 respectively.

India ODI Squad.

KL Rahul (c/wk), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.

South Africa ODI squad:

Temba Bavuma (captain), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Rubin Hermann, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Prenelan Subrayen.