South Africa will have to do without Kagiso Rabada when they face India in a three-match ODI series.
Rabada was released from the squad on the eve of Wednesday's first game at Boland Park, afforded a rest ahead of the Tests against New Zealand next month.
The selectors did not call up a replacement for the paceman, who helped the Proteas come from behind to consign India to a 2-1 defeat in the recent Test series.
Spinner George Linde has been retained from the Test squad and the left-armer will be hoping to add to his tally of two ODI appearances.
South Africa have not won an ODI series since a whitewash of Australia in March 2020, and their most recent series against the Netherlands was postponed due to concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Virat Kohli is set to play in his first match since stepping down as India's Test captain.
With Rohit Sharma out of the tour due to a hamstring injury, KL Rahul leads the side and will open as the tourists strive to put behind them the disappointment of failing to win a first Test series in South Africa.
India have won the last two ODI series they have contested, beating both England and Sri Lanka by a 2-1 margin. The tourists have added Jayant Yadav and Navdeep Saini to their squad, with Washington Sundar missing out after testing positive for COVID-19.
South Africa were hammered 5-1 when they last faced India in an ODI series on home soil four years ago, Kohli claiming the man of the series award.
There will be no World Cup Super League points to play for in this series, but South Africa must build some momentum as they are currently outside the automatic qualification spots for the showpiece in India next year.
Kohli overdue a century
Kohli brought a halt to his long reign as Test skipper a day after South Africa were beaten by seven wickets in the third and final Test at Newlands.
The 33-year-old had relinquished the Twenty20 captaincy following the World Cup late last year and was then replaced by Rohit as ODI skipper.
Kohli had to contend with further questions about his lack of runs ahead of that decisive match in Cape Town and you have to go back to November 2019 for his last international century, that coming against Bangladesh in the longest format.
He has not reached three figures in an ODI since a game against West Indies in August 2019, but averages 59.07 in this format and could thrive without leadership duties.
South Africa have unearthed a gem in Jansen
Marco Jansen was magnificent in his first Test series, the all-rounder taking 19 wickets at an average of 16.47 as he caused the India batters all sorts of problems.
South Africa have unearthed another gem in the form of the towering 21-year-old, who has a very big future ahead of him and can make a big impact in his first taste of ODI cricket.
Quinton de Kock brought his Test career to an end after a defeat to India in the first Test at SuperSport Park but can still have a big role to play in the shorter formats.
Skipper Temba Bavuma impressed with the bat in the Test series and South Africa will look to him to make some significant contributions as they battle to inflict another defeat on India.
Yorkshire end winless run while Robin Das inspires Essex
Yorkshire clinched their first win of the season in any format with an eight-run Vitality Blast victory against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
England’s Dawid Malan hit 95 off 56 balls and skipper Shan Masood’s 34 off 23 helped Yorkshire post 182 for seven after electing to bat first, and that proved to be enough.
Notts’ Alex Hales struck a half-century for the second consecutive night and New Zealand international Colin Munro made 46, while David Wiese took two for 32 for the visitors, who chalked up their first T20 win at Trent Bridge since 2015.
Yorkshire, who prop up Division Two in the LV= County Championship after failing to win any of their first five matches, had lost their previous three Blast fixtures. They face Roses rivals Lancashire at Headingley on Thursday.
Robin Das continued his impressive breakthrough week with a maiden Blast half-century as Essex belatedly began their campaign with a three-wicket win over Gloucestershire.
Das, 21, hit a century on his first-class debut against Ireland on Friday before crashing 69 from 33 balls to help Essex towards a daunting 196 target.
That huge Gloucestershire score was in large part down to Ben Charlesworth’s brutal 19-ball 50 – the quickest for the county in T20s.
But Das, together with fellow homegrown player Feroze Khushi’s 34 off 14 balls and Tom Westley’s 31 not out, guided Essex to victory with five balls to spare.
Somerset beat Kent by 13 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method in a rain-affected match at Canterbury.
Three interruptions marred the contest, but Somerset eventually restricted Kent to 112 in pursuit of a revised target of 126 from 15 overs despite 29 from skipper Sam Billings.
Ben Green took three for 19 and Somerset team-mate Lewis Gregory stifled the hosts when they needed 18 off the last over.
Somerset were all out for 154 from 20 overs, with their biggest contribution coming from Tom Lammonby (34), while Kent’s Wes Agar took three for 18.
Heinrich Malan sees ‘opportunity’ for Ireland to match England’s fire with fire
Ireland coach Heinrich Malan said his side will look to entertain when they take on England on day one of the Test at Lord’s on Thursday.
The team spent March and April touring south Asia with games against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ahead of their first Test meeting with England since 2019.
England’s aggressive approach continues to win acclaim but Malan pointed out that with much of his side having played the bulk of their careers in one-day cricket, they were well set up to provide a watchable spectacle across their four days in London.
“Look, we know it will be challenging,” said Malan. “But within that challenge it will create opportunity too, and I guess for us we’re looking at the opportunity side of things.
“If they play the way they play and we can execute some of the plans that we have in place, hopefully we can execute that and that will leave us there for an exciting match.
“If you look at the way we’ve played white-ball cricket, we’ve (entertained). We’ve drawn some cards, we’ve beaten one or two of the top-tier teams in the way that we’ve gone about our white-ball business.
“To be fair, a lot of our players, their fall-back is white-ball as an understudy of how they play so a lot of their natural instinct is geared towards white-ball cricket which is all about entertainment.”
Ireland were admitted as full members of the International Cricket Council in 2017 and are currently ranked 12th of the 12 Test-playing nations.
They have lost all six Tests they have played since their first against Pakistan in 2018 but have fared better as a one-day side, registering 75 wins in 188 games since 2006.
They will be England’s final opponents before the Ashes begins at Edgbaston in June and Brendon McCullum’s players will be out to impress their coach in order to secure a place in the side.
“It’s another great opportunity for us to play some red-ball cricket, something that our players have longed for over the last couple of years, and get the opportunity at the home of cricket is obviously a special week for us,” said Malan.
“We know that we’re at the start of our red-ball journey as a country and very much looking forward to building on some of those building blocks we put in place over the last couple of weeks on the sub-continent.
“When you prepare for any game of cricket it’s what you prepare for, to go out there and try and win and then play accordingly.
“Will it be challenging? Yes. Is it a huge challenge? It’s one that we’re very much looking forward to.”
Seamer Josh Tongue to make his England Test debut against Ireland
Josh Tongue will make his Test debut when England take on Ireland at Lord’s this week.
The Worcestershire seamer, who has taken 11 wickets in LV= County Championship Division Two this season including that of Australia star Steve Smith in his side’s draw with Sussex, was named in the squad after injuries to James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer and Olly Stone.
He said: “It’s an amazing feeling. Speechless really, even from when I got the first call-up to be in the squad. Now being in the actual team, it’s just a dream come true really.
“Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) came up to me just before training finished today and gave me the good news. I bowled at some of the lads on Monday, I felt like I bowled nicely and obviously I must have bowled fairly well to get selected.”
Tongue will feature in a three-pronged seam attack with Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts for the four-day match which starts on Thursday.
Jonny Bairstow makes his first international appearance since last August after a long-term ankle injury and will keep wicket.
Bairstow is listed to bat at number seven, with Yorkshire colleague Harry Brook keeping his place at number five after four centuries in five Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand over the winter.
They are separated in the provisional order by captain Ben Stokes, while Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley will open the batting, with vice-captain Ollie Pope at number three and Joe Root at four.
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