Jayant Yadav replaces Washington Sundar for South Africa ODI series

Jayant Yadav has been named as replacement for Washington Sundar, who recently tested positive for Covid-19, for the three-match ODI series in South Africa starting January 19 in Paarl. Navdeep Saini has also been added to the 50-over squad as cover for Mohammed Siraj, who is recovering from the hamstring injury he had picked up in the second Test against South Africa.

Both Jayant and Saini are already a part of the Indian contingent in South Africa. Jayant has been a part of the Test squad, though he hasn’t featured in the XI yet. He bowls offspin and is a handy batter, something of a like-for-like replacement for Washington. As for Saini, he has been in South Africa since November last year, first as part of the India A squad and then as a reserve in the Test squad.

Jayant, almost 32, has played five Tests and just one ODI, against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam in October 2016, which was his international debut. He returned 1 for 8 in four overs in that game as India won by 190 runs. Twenty nine-year-old Saini, meanwhile, has played eight ODIs, in which he has six wickets at an average of 80.16, to go with two Tests and 11 T20Is.

Washington returned a positive Covid-19 test last week while training at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy with the rest of the players who were scheduled to go to South Africa for the ODI series – Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Venkatesh Iyer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prasidh Krishna. That group left for South Africa on Wednesday morning.

As for Siraj, he played both the first and second Tests in South Africa, picking up three wickets in the first in Centurion as India won by 113 runs, but could bowl only 15.5 overs across two innings in the second in Johannesburg after picking up a hamstring niggle in the first South Africa innings.

The second and third ODIs between South Africa and India will be played on January 21 in Paarl and on January 23 in Cape Town.

India ODI squad: KL Rahul (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jayant Yadav, Navdeep Saini