India cricket team star Rishabh Pant is all set to make his comeback to ODIs after a 15-month gap as he has been named in the squad for the IND vs SA series. The southpaw, who has been a regular in Tests, was last seen in action in the 50-over format way back in August 2024 in the series against Sri Lanka. The three-match ODI series against South Africa will commence from November 30 onwards, with KL Rahul set to lead the Indian team.
Rishabh Pant returns to ODIs, but for how long?
Pant has been ignored from ODIs for the past year. Rahul, who has been named captain in place of Shubman Gill, has been the first-choice keeper for the side. Pant did not manage to find a place in India’s squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 either. However, now he is all set to return to the ODI side for the series against SA.
Interestingly, India have named 3 keeper-batters in their squad for the IND vs SA ODIs – Pant, Rahul and Jurel. It could be the case that Rahul plays as a pure batter while Pant is the wicketkeeper and Jurel is included as a back-up. To date, Pant’s numbers in ODIs suggest that he is a far superior player in the other two formats as he boasts of just 871 runs from 31 ODIs, averaging 33.50.
Nevertheless, Pant’s inclusion in the side could primarily be due to the absence of Gill and Shreyas Iyer. It remains to be seen if he will be a part of the ODI side in the long term or if it is just a stop-gap arrangement.
India squad for IND vs SA ODIs
Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel
IND vs SA ODIs schedule
| Day | Date | Match | Venue |
| Sunday | 30th November | 1st ODI | Ranchi |
| Wednesday | 3rd December | 2nd ODI | Raipur |
| Saturday | 6th December | 3rd ODI | Visakhapatnam |
