Virat Kohli's fate as the ODI skipper will be decided in the coming days when the selectors meet to select SA Tour Squad

Virat Kohli's future as India ODI captain will be decided this week when the national selection committee, led by Chetan Sharma, determines the roster for the upcoming tour of South Africa.

The top BCCI members have said that India's tour of South Africa remains on schedule, despite closely monitoring the situation surrounding the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant in that country. While 2022 will be dominated by T20Is due to another global event in Australia, there are currently only nine ODIs in the next seven months, six of them (three each in South Africa and England) abroad and three in India.

Since there will be a bio-bubble, a jumbo squad across all formats is expected to be elected again. The cadre strength could be between 20 and 23, taking into account all formats.

There are currently two schools of thought in the BCCI. One who believes Kohli could be allowed to move on as there are only a few ODIs left. The other thought process is not to have two white ball skippers and to give Rohit enough time to prepare a strong team that could be serious title contenders for the 2023 ODI World Cup set to take place in India.

It is understood that there are strong arguments in favor of both theories, but the final call regarding Kohli's fate as an ODI skipper is taken by President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah. Kohli's inability to win a major multi-team event speaks against him keeping the captain, but his overall record has been more than decent in the format.

Read More | We have time to decide, SA tour is now underway: Sourav Ganguly

“The Indian roster will be announced in the next few days. We will have everything ready on our part and then wait for the government's nod. If the government tells us to cut off the trip, we would, but we need to have the cadres selected and ready, ”a senior BCCI official told PTI on Wednesday.

This week, on Saturday, the BCCI General Assembly will be held in Calcutta, with the renewal of Chetan's and company's tenure according to the norms on the agenda. However, there is talk in the periphery that the three-way test series will be shortened by a match.

"We'll know in a couple of days if the series was going to be a two-test affair instead of three, but there has been some back and forth discussion," said a local commenter on YouTube while talking about India 'A' vs. South Africa 'A' second 'test' in Bloemfontein.