India batsman Rohit Sharma has been ruled of the three Tests in South Africa due to a hamstring injury he suffered while training, the country's cricket board said on Monday.

Rohit, who has replaced Virat Kohli as the national limited-overs skipper, was earlier named vice-captain of the Test squad scheduled to begin the series on December 26 in Centurion.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said Rohit "sustained a left hamstring injury" during his training session in Mumbai on Sunday.

Uncapped opener Priyank Panchal, who recently led India A in a Test series in South Africa, will replace Rohit in the Test team led by Kohli.

Rohit was last week named new ODI skipper as he completed the white-ball captaincy takeover from Kohli who stood down from the T20 job and then sacked from the 50-over format leadership.

India will play South Africa in three ODI matches starting January 19. 

Squad: Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj