Indian selector announced strong 16 member squad for South Africa ODI and twenty20 series in South Africa. The surprise inclusion in the squad is leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who last played in ODI for India in 2008.

Virendra Sehwag who missed the last one day series against New Zealand also included in the squad, while Sachin Tendulkar who has not played any series after his double century in ODI is also included in the squad. This is the last series for the Indians before they will play in the world cup so by considering this, it may be the final members who will take part in the mega event.

Middle order batsman Rohit Sharma who played in the ODI series against New Zealand also failed to retain his place. Ravidner Jadeja, Saurav Towary, Parthiv Patel and Ishant Sharma also not included in the squad.

Indian team comprises of six specialist batsmen, one wicketkeeper M.S.Dhoni, eight bowlers and only one all-rounder Yusuf Pathan.

India will start the short format of the game with only one twenty20 match to be played on 9th January 2011 followed by five match ODI series against South Africans.

Indian ODI Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth.