Team India has suffered a major setback before the five-match T20 series against South Africa starting on Thursday. KL Rahul was handed the captaincy in the absence of Rohit Sharma and he has been ruled out of the series with an injury. At the same time, chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav has also been injured. Now the command of the team will be in the hands of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya will be the vice-captain. Apart from Rohit, star players including Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested in the series.
Rahul has a right groin injury. Kuldeep injured his right hand while batting at the nets at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla, where the first match will be played on Thursday. Giving an update on the injury of both the players, the BCCI said that no other player will be included in the team in place of the injured players. Both Rahul and Kuldeep will report to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where the medical team will further assess their injury and make a decision.
Who will be the opener – In the absence of KL Rahul, now Ishan Kishan along with Rituraj Gaikwad will now open the innings on Thursday. The player who has performed brilliantly for Chennai Super Kings has been a part of Team India for a long time, but he rarely gets a chance. Now in the absence of the top players, they should get a chance to play for the entire series.
Team India on the threshold of creating history – Team India has performed brilliantly in the last three series. New Zealand is on the verge of creating history by defeating West Indies and Sri Lanka. The team has won 12 T20 matches in a row and if it wins the first match of the series, then it will make a world record for winning most T20 matches in a row. She will overtake Afghanistan.
Great record of South Africa – South Africa have not lost a limited overs series in India since 2010 and have fielded their best team this time as well. For South Africa, the in-form David Miller, Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram will play an important role. In the bowling department, he will be heavily focused on the spin duo of Tabrez Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj and the pace duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Norkia.
Team India- Rishabh Pant (captain, wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Rituraj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik