BCCI has announced Team India for the Test series against South Africa. Rishabh Pant has returned to the team as vice-captain. This will be India’s third Test series in the World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. See which players have got a place in this team under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, who is out in place of Pant.

BCCI announced the team by issuing a press release on Wednesday. Along with the national team, the board also announced the India ‘A’ team for the 3-match ODI series against South Africa ‘A’. Tilak Verma has been made its captain.

This player returned to the team along with Rishabh Pant

Pant was injured in the fourth Test on the England tour, in which his toe was fractured. After that he was out of Asia Cup, Test series against West Indies and Australia tour. He has returned after more than 100 days.

Akash Deep has also returned to the team. Due to Pant’s arrival, N Jagadeesan had to be out of the team. Akash Deep has come in place of fast bowler Prasidh Krishna.

India’s test squad against South Africa

Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper, vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammad Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep.

India vs South Africa Test Schedule

• First Test – 14 to 18 November, 9:30 am (Eden Gardens)
• Second Test- 22 to 26 November, 9:30 am (Assam Cricket Association).

News #TeamIndia squad for Test series against South Africa and India A squad against South Africa A announced.

Details | @IDFCFIRSTBank https://t.co/dP8C8RuwXJ

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 5, 2025

Shubman gill batting position: Rishabh Pant, the vice-captain of the Indian Test team, has confirmed that Shubman Gill is going to bat on number-4 in the series against England. Gill was batting on the first third order, but the number-3 has become vacant due to his fourth place. On the other hand, after the retirement of Rohit Sharma, the opening slot has also become vacant. Earlier there were speculations that Gill could play the role of opening batting, but the question of opening is still complicated by batting at number four. After all, who can get the responsibility of opening? Here you will get the answer to this question.

The Indian Test team will have the first opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has been opening for Team India since the Test debut in 2023. As an opener, Jaiswal has so far scored 1,798 runs in 36 Test innings at an average of 52.88. The biggest question is who will be their partner?

RCB’s former player can open

With Shubman Gill’s number-4, it is almost decided that KL Rahul can start the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal. Although the number of number-3 batsman in the team is also empty, but Rahul may not do the batting on this order, because he has an equal experience of the batsman on number-3.

KL Rahul, who has played for RCB in IPL, has played as an opener in 83 Test innings. In these 83 innings, he has scored 2,803 runs at a fine average of around 35. As far as number-3 is concerned, there is speculation about giving a chance to Karun Nair or Sai Sudarshan for him. At the same time, Rishabh Pant, in Test matches, can handle one place below Shubman Gill.

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England announced playing XI for the first Test against India, return of Chris Woakes; Know who is captain