New Delhi: The Indian team's tour of South Africa will be all about Rohit Sharma's ascendancy as the national white-ball skipper along with the additional responsibility of being the vice-captain of the Test team that will take on the Proteas in a three-match series starting December 26.
That Ajinkya Rahane will be losing vice-captaincy was clear after the tour of England and once he was dropped from the playing XI against New Zealand in his hometown Mumbai on pretext of a mysterious hamstring niggle, the writing was on the wall.
PTI, on December 3, had mentioned that Rahane's Test vice-captaincy was in jeopardy with Rohit likely to succeed him.
Rahane's position in this team had become untenable for the longest time as his only significant contribution in the last two years was a hundred in India's victory against Australia in Melbourne during the Boxing Day Test.
The series which he won as captain should have marked his return to form but he endured a rather massive slump in form with his average in 2021 across 12 Tests being below 20.
One of the reasons that Rahane has been able to keep his place is because new coach Rahul Dravid would like to give him a long rope before moving on and South Africa series could well be his last at the international level if he doesn't perform as per expectations.
"One of the reasons for Rahane being able to keep his place is the fact that even Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli are not scoring runs for a long time. It would be grossly unfair to just target one player when two others have also been in equally horrendous form.
If there is one thing that India will miss in South Africa, that's the absence of Ravindra Jadeja the all-rounder, who lends that balance at No.7 in the away Test matches with a left-handed batting option.
Jadeja is out with a right forearm injury.