🏏India vs South Africa 1st T20 : GIS Tiruvanathapuram. 🏏 - Page 2

A potential free hit for India and South Africa

Three matches this late aren't likely to have much of a bearing on T20 World Cup plans, beyond the usual dotting of the i's and crossing of the t's.

IND Key Players

• Virat Kohli- the former captain struggled with his form earlier this year but had a good 2022 Asia Cup and hit seven boundaries in his innings on Sunday.
• Suryakumar Yadav- the aggressive and big-hitting middle order batter struck 69 runs from 36 balls in Sunday’s game in Hyderabad. He hit 115 runs in the series against Australia.
• Axar Patel- the left-arm spinner opened the bowling in the last two games of the series against Australia. He was very impressive and dismissed Aaron Finch, Josh Inglis and Matthew Wade in the final match.

Three successive last-over thrillers over the last week. Can we have one more tonight? Hello and a warm welcome to the start of the 3-match T20I series between India and South Africa.

We're uncomfortably close to the T20 World Cup now. Just three official games remain for both sides before Australia beckons, and yet, you can't really say how either side will line up come the World Cup. India enter the series without three players set to go to Australia - one of 'em is Hardik Pandya (rested), who without a doubt is one of the first names in their XI, but the missing Bhuvneshwar Kumar (rested) and Deepak Hooda (injured) is a duo they perhaps liked to have seen more of in this three-match series. That means, Deepak Chahar and Shreyas Iyer (both in the travelling reserves) could get a few hits while Shahbaz Ahmed is likely to stay in the bench, here as a pure back-up. South Africa, on the other hand, have their full World Cup squad here, and you'd expect them to field a side that would most likely resemble their best.

We're in Thiruvananthapuram today for the first game, and isn't it a shame that Sanju Samson isn't here? Either way, expect both sides to go hard at each other because winning is a habit and you don't want to get into a losing momentum before a big event. You've got Sreshth Shah and Ashish Pant here in the comms seat this evening.

Virat Kohli scored 63 runs from 48 balls in the final match against Australia and the number three batter is our pick for India’s highest run scorer in this opening game of the series. Left arm spinner Axar Patel took eight wickets across the games against Australia.

Reeza Hendricks has hit four half-centuries from eight IT20s in 2022 and the top order batter is well worth backing as South Africa’s highest run scorer in this match. With the ball, Tabraiz Shamsi took eight wickets in the series against England and the spinner is a strong choice for South Africa’s top wicket taker in this fixture.

Depending on the team you're a fan of, there are two #BigQuestions that has been making the rounds these days. The first is the Temba Bavuma question. He was left unpicked at the SA20 auction that left many asking how that would make the South Africa captain feel about his place in the T20I side. Does he merit selection purely as a batter? It's a question that's followed him all through his international career, often in insinuating tones, and Karthik Krishnaswamy dives in to try and answer this question. Krishnaswamy also proposes another idea: that India are better off benching Axar Patel - the Player of the Series against Australia with ridiculous bowling numbers - and instead playing R Ashwin. I can hear ya'll going "WHATTT?", but here him out, the argument is very convincing.

How should the two teams approach this series? Alagappan Muthu says that "the good only reinforces what they already know and the bad, well, that gets thrown in the bin because there's no time for that." Can't disagree with that philosophy, can you? Meanwhile Wasim Jaffer has a more serious tone in his video preview chat where he shares what he wants to see from the India seamers.

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Three successive last-over thrillers over the last week. Can we have one more tonight? Hello and a warm welcome to the start of the 3-match T20I series between India and South Africa.

Cheers..

It's been just over 14 weeks and 3 days since the conclusion of South Africa's previous tour to India, which was shared 2-2 thanks to a wash-out in the final game of that series.

With the T20 World Cup fast approaching, both these sides couldn't have asked for a better opponent to get some much needed game-time, testing and challenging their combinations while at it.

Toss coming up in less than 10 minutes.

Cheers..

Good Luck Team India 🥳

thanks 🤗