Aakash Chopra Picks His India's Test Squad For South Africa Tour; Leaves Out Shubman Gill

India tour of South Africa is set to begin from December 26 with the first test at Centurion. This tour will comprise of 3 Tests & 3 ODIs. Cricket South Africa have already announced their 21-man-squad for the tests against India while the BCCI hasn't announced the Indian squad yet. 

Former Indian cricketer and famous broadcaster, commentator & analyst Aakash Chopra picked a 15-man squad for tests against South Africa. In this squad, Aakash Chopra has gone with the players who have performed well in the recent matches, particularly from the series against New Zealand. 

With this, Chopra has left out Shubman Gill and has picked Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul & Mayank Agarwal as opener options. Gill left his mark in the Border Gavaskar trophy 2020-21 where he made a valuable contribution of 91 runs in the 4th innings at Gabba, chasing a target of 328. The 22-year-old batter clustered 259 runs in 6 innings, averaging 51.80.

Shubman Gill had cemented his spot as the opener when KL Rahul reached his purple patch and has made it impossible for the team management to leave him out in any format. Gill was then considered as the backup opener. 

However, Mayank Agarwal performed very well in the series against New Zealand and is now knocking on the back-up opener spot. Apart from this, Aakash Chopra has also named Hanuma Vihari in this squad, which was obvious since we have heard Aakash in the commentary wondering many-a-time as to why Vihari wasn't included in the squad against NZ. 

Aakash Chopra's Squad for Tests against South Africa:

Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav.