Watch: Rest of India teammates celebrate pacer Mukesh Kumar's maiden India call-up

Indian fast bowler Mukesh Kumar has earned his maiden call-up to the national side after the BCCI revealed the squad for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa. The 28-year-old received the news while he was playing for the Rest of India (ROI) team during the ongoing Irani Cup in Rajkot.

ROI teammates celebrate Mukesh's maiden call-up

As seen in the video in the Tweet, there were massive celebrations among the Rest of India teammates after Mukesh Kumar earned his maiden ODI call-up. The 28-year-old has been outstanding with the ball in the ongoing Irani Cup match against Saurashtra as he picked up an outstanding four-wicket haul and helped restrict the 2020 Ranji Trophy champions to just 98 runs. When it comes to his overall stats, he has picked up 110 wickets after just 30 first-class games.

Mukesh was not the only player who received his maiden call-up to the ODI squad, as the selectors also gave Rajat Patidar his first call-up. Meanwhile, the entire list of 16 players selected for the upcoming India vs South Africa ODI series is mentioned below:

Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shreyas Iyer (VC), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubhman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar.

Mukesh reveals his father's doubts over cricketing career

While speaking to PTI in an interview, Mukesh Kumar said, "I got very emotional. It was all blur. I could only remember my late father Kashi Nath Singh's face. My father till I played Ranji Trophy for Bengal didn't think I am good enough to do well professionally." The 28-year-old's father passed away due to a brain stroke before the Ranji Trophy final last year.

In the same interview, Mukesh also revealed the advice he received from legendary cricketer VVS Laxman as he added, "Laxman sir told me that Mukesh whatever lengths you bowl for Bengal and how you set up batters, just replicate that consistently. I just followed his instructions."

With Mukesh having been selected in the ODI squad, it will now be interesting to see if the team management hands him his debut or not.