Indian opener KL Rahul will lead the ODI team in South Africa, national selectors said, after newly-appointed white-ball captain Rohit Sharma failed to recover from a hamstring injury.

Rohit was injured only days after being named India's ODI captain in December, a promotion that completed his limited-overs captaincy takeover from Virat Kohli.

Star batsman Kohli, who stood down from the T20 job, was later sacked from the 50-over format leadership.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said Friday that Rohit was "ruled out owing to an injury" and announced the 18-man squad for the three-match series starting January 19 with pacer Jasprit Bumrah as vice-captain.  

As India regulars across all three formats of the game, both Rahul, 29, and Bumrah, 28, are seen by many as future leaders to replace Sharma, 33, and the 33-year-old Kohli, who still leads the national Test team. 

Squad: KL Rahul (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj