South Africa’s India Tour has gone slightly under the radar. There hasn’t been much hype around our travelling Proteas.
A full-strength squad has been selected by South Africa, while India have picked what seems on face value as a “2nd-string” squad.
Along with new editions such as the exciting pacer Umran Malik and death-overs specialist Arshdeep Singh.
Regular captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, and pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the white-ball series.
A new leadership group has also been picked with Rishabh Pant made captain after KL Rahul was ruled out.
But saying that this is a weakened side could be smoke and mirrors, with players like Dinesh Karthik, Ishan Kishan and 2022 IPL winning skipper Hardik Pandya, amongst others who are coming off impressive IPL campaigns, available for selection.
South Africa have only one maiden call-up to their squad that arrived in India earlier this week – exciting young batter Tristan Stubbs has been added after a fantastic white-ball season for the Warriors as well as recently signing with the Mumbai Indians.
The discussions around the South African side have mainly been about 3 aspects :
Who is the best partner for Quinton de Kock?
Should David Miller move up the order?
Should South Africa trust Stubbs to be the designated finisher in the side in this series leading up to and including the World Cup?
For me, this tour is about establishing our identity as a T20 side, finding roles for our players and sticking with the strategy and personnel consistently leading up to the World Cup.
We covered all of this in our latest preview:
SOUTH AFRICA SQUAD: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen.
INDIA SQUAD: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
Fixtures:
Jun 09, Thu
India vs South Africa, 1st T20I
Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
Jun 12, Sun
India vs South Africa, 2nd T20I
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack
Jun 14, Tue
India vs South Africa, 3rd T20I
Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam
Jun 17, Fri
India vs South Africa, 4th T20I
Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
Jun 19, Sun
India vs South Africa, 5th T20I
M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
