New Delhi: Indian skipper KL Rahul was on Wednesday ruled out of the five-match T20 International series against South Africa due to an injury.
Wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, who was named as Rahul's deputy, will lead the side.
"KL is out of whole series and Rishabh Pant will lead the team as he is the designated deputy," a senior BCCI source told PTI on Thursday.
It is understood that Ruturaj Gaikwad will open the batting alongside Ishan Kishan in the series-opener on Thursday.
T20I squad: Rishabh Pant (Captain)(wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik