Rishabh Pant Returns As The BCCI Announces The Squad For The South Africa Test Series

Originally posted on Cricfit | By Hritik Gupta | Last updated Nov 5, 2025 2:25 PM ET

BCCI announced the 15-member Test team for the upcoming series against South Africa on Wednesday, November 5. Rishabh Pant, who is the captain of India’s Test team, has been called back to the squad. Pant hurt himself on the tour of England, which kept him from playing for a long time. His recovery has been carefully planned so that he is fit and ready to play competitive cricket at the highest level.

Pant is back after playing in the India A vs. South Africa A series, which shows that he is ready to start playing for his country again. The addition of the experienced wicketkeeper-batter to the squad is a big help for India’s preparations for the Test series. His presence is expected to make the team’s middle-order batting stronger and give tactical support behind the stumps during the difficult tour of South Africa.

India’s Test squad for South Africa series

The 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batter did well in the first India A vs. South Africa A match. As captain, he led the team to victory. Chris Woakes hit Pant’s foot with a ball during the Manchester Test, which caused his injury. After that, he went through extensive rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, which helped him get better and get ready to play international cricket again.

Pant will go back to being Shubman Gill’s deputy, and Dhruv Jurel, who did well during the West Indies series, will be the team’s second-choice wicketkeeper. Axar Patel’s return to the Test team was also a big deal because Prasidh Krishna was dropped from the team. These changes show how the team’s management is strategically putting together the squad, balancing experienced players with new ones while making sure that all the key positions are covered for the tough tour of South Africa coming up.

India’s Squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK) (VC), 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

This article first appeared on Cricfit and was syndicated with permission.

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