“Rohit’s opportunity to make up for WC final loss”: Gavaskar on India’s tour to South Africa

New Delhi [India], December 12 (ANI): Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said that India’s ongoing tour to South Africa will give Rohit Sharma a chance to make up for the ODI World Cup 2023 final loss.

Speaking on Star Sports, Gavaskar praised senior players like Rohit and Virat and said that they have been in their best form for the last 6-8 months.

Talking about the two-match Test series against South Africa, Gavaskar said that the India skipper will play a pivotal role in the long-format games against the Proteas.

“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have really been at the peak of their powers in the last 6-8 months. Rohit is going to be key for India in the Test series. Rohit will have a big role to play to set up the batters coming after him at three, four and five. Whatever happens, this is Rohit Sharma’s opportunity to make up for the World Cup final loss,” Gavaskar said.

The all-format tour of South Africa started on December 10 with a three-match T20I series which will go on till December 14. From December 17, the ODI leg of the series will start which will conclude on December 21. The first Test match will be played on December 26 at Centurion and the second game will take place on January 3 at Cape Town.

India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (Wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.

India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.

India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (Wk), Sanju Samson (Wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.