The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has revealed its 15-member squad for the upcoming two-match Test series at home against Temba Bavuma as their star wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant, returns to the national side, having featured smoothly during the opening unofficial red-ball clash for India A against South Africa at the CoE in Bengaluru. 

Rishabh Pant injured himself during the fourth Manchester Test in their previous trip to the United Kingdom when Chris Woakes' delivery hit the batter on the bridge of the feet while the southpaw attempted the reverse sweep. Along with Pant, who replaced Narayan Jagadeesan in the squad, Akash Deep returned to the squad in place of Prasidh Krishna.

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Deep was recovering from a back injury that had kept him out of the Duleep Trophy after his return from England. Since then, he played the first two rounds of the Ranji Trophy 2025/26 for Bengal and is expected to be part of the second unofficial Test against the South Africa A side.

Rishabh Pant and Akash Deep return for India in Test series against South Africa

India’s Test captain, Shubman Gill, their premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar, who are part of the T20I series against Australia currently down under, will join the Test squad on November 8, which is six days before the beginning of the first Kolkata Test. Kuldeep Yadav was released from the T20I squad to take part in the second unofficial Test.

The second clash will be played at the debut ground- Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. Yashasvi Jaiswal, who smashed a fine fifty and a century for Mumbai against Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy, will be itching to continue the flow. India is currently at three, while the Proteas are at five in the WTC 2025-27 points table.

India’s squad for two-match Test series at home against South Africa

Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vc & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep