IND vs SA, 1st T20I, Arun Jaitley Stadium. Approximately four months are there for teams to prepare for the T20 World Cup. South Africa will be looking to take full advantage of the weak-looking Indian squad. Since KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav are out of the series, India's batting strength looks inexperienced and weak on paper. Rishabh Pant has two shoes to fill – a batter and a skipper.
A record to worry about is that SA has never lost a T20I series in India! In fact, SA won the last bilateral T20I series played in India by 2-0.
The SA Controversy:
Proteas Test skipper Dean Elger recently said that the player who opted to play in the IPL instead of playing for the national team against Bangladesh should not expect that they will get a place in the national team, but that is precisely what is happening right now.
Too Many Options:
SA has included Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Dwaine Pretorius, and Wayne Parnell in the fast bowling unit. It will be interesting to see the selection and rotation of the fast bowlers throughout the five-match series.
The-Comeback-Season or Injury-Season For India:
This may be the biggest comeback of the modern cricket history of India- Dinesh Karthik. He must be included in the playing 11 as a part of WC preparation. Also, Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal are back in the squad too.
On the other hand, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, and Deepak Chahar are among the players who are missing out due to injuries.
Most certainly, the selectors have made up their decision about Shikhar Dhawan's future with the national team. We may never see him again in the blues.
At Arun Jaitley Stadium:
| Matches | Won | Lost | |
| IND | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| SA | 1 | 1 | 0 |
H2H Team Stats:
| Batting 1st Won | Batting 2nd Won | |
| IND | 6 | 3 |
| SA | 2 | 4 |
H2H Player Stats:
| M | I | R | 100 | 50 | 30 | Avg. | SR | |
| Q de Kock | 3 | 3 | 137 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 68.50 | 147.31 |
| R Hendricks | 5 | 5 | 137 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 27.40 | 117.09 |
| T Bavuma | 2 | 2 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 76.00 | 115.15 |
| D Miller | 9 | 7 | 99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19.80 | 128.57 |
| D Karthik | 4 | 4 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20.00 | 115.38 |
| H Pandya | 5 | 3 | 48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24.00 | 114.29 |
| R Pant | 2 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.50 | 92.00 |
| S Iyer | 2 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21.00 | 95.45 |
| D Pretorius | 2 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 142.86 |
| M | I | W | Avg. | ER | SR | |
| B Kumar | 6 | 6 | 8 | 19.13 | 7.29 | 15.75 |
| H Pandya | 5 | 5 | 5 | 30.40 | 8.44 | 21.60 |
| K Rabada | 4 | 4 | 4 | 28.25 | 7.53 | 22.50 |
| T Shamsi | 5 | 5 | 4 | 33.50 | 7.88 | 25.50 |
| Y Chahal | 2 | 2 | 1 | 103.00 | 12.88 | 48.00 |
| A Patel | 3 | 3 | 1 | 78.00 | 9.75 | 48.00 |
| A Nortje | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | 9.00 | – |
Venue Stats:
(Overall T20 stats)
| M | I | R | 100 | 50 | 30 | Avg. | SR | |
| R Pant | 30 | 30 | 1074 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 39.78 | 168.87 |
| S Iyer | 31 | 30 | 877 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 32.48 | 127.84 |
| D Karthik | 34 | 29 | 774 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 30.96 | 136.75 |
| Q de Kock | 12 | 12 | 309 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 30.90 | 126.64 |
| H Patel | 16 | 10 | 211 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 30.14 | 167.46 |
| A Patel | 11 | 10 | 195 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 39.00 | 116.07 |
| D Miller | 11 | 10 | 162 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 23.14 | 100.62 |
| H Pandya | 8 | 7 | 106 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 21.20 | 182.76 |
| D Hooda | 5 | 4 | 89 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 22.25 | 153.45 |
| R Gaikwad | 2 | 2 | 79 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 39.50 | 164.58 |
| M | I | W | Avg. | ER | SR | |
| H Patel | 16 | 16 | 20 | 23.45 | 8.02 | 17.55 |
| K Rabada | 9 | 9 | 12 | 25.92 | 8.84 | 17.58 |
| A Khan | 8 | 8 | 11 | 19.18 | 7.81 | 14.73 |
| B Kumar | 8 | 8 | 11 | 21.82 | 7.74 | 16.91 |
| A Patel | 11 | 11 | 10 | 23.40 | 5.73 | 24.50 |
| Y Chahal | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25.22 | 8.41 | 18.00 |
| H Pandya | 8 | 6 | 3 | 29.00 | 7.91 | 22.00 |
Probable Playing 11:
| IND | SA |
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | Reeza Hendricks |
| Ishan Kishan | Quinten de Kock (WK) |
| Shreyas Iyer/Deepak Hooda | Temba Bavuma (C) |
| Rishabh Pant (C & WK) | Aiden Markram |
| Hardik Pandya | Rassie van der Dussen |
| Dinesh Karthik | David Miller |
| Harshal Patel | Dwaine Pretorius |
| Axar Patel | Kagiso Rabada |
| Bhevneshwar Kumar | Anrich Nortje/Marco Jansen |
| Avesh Khan | Lungi Ngidi |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | Tabraiz Shamsi |
Fantasy Picks:
WK – Q de Kock, I Kishan, R Pant
Batters – T Bavuma, S Iyer
AR – H Pandya, A Markram, A Patel
Bowlers – T Shamsi, K Rabada, H Patel
Punt picks – B Kumar, R Gaikwad, R Hendricks, D Pretorius
Common C/VC – Q de Kock, K Rabada, R Pant, H Pandya
Punt C/VC – H Patel, A Markram, R Hendricks, A Patel
IND Batters vs SA Bowlers:
| Rabada | Nortje | Ngidi | Shamsi | Pretorius | Jansen | |
| I Kishan | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| R Gaikwad | 2 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| S Iyer | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| D Hooda | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| R Pant | – | – | 2 | – | – | – |
| H Pandya | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| D Karthik | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| V Iyer | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
SA Batters vs IND Bowlers:
| Bhuvi | Chahal | Harshal | Avesh | Hardik | Axar | Umran | |
| R Hendricks | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| Q de Kock | 1 | 6 | – | – | – | 1 | – |
| T Bavuma | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| A Markram | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| R Dussen | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| D Miller | 1 | 3 | – | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| D Pretorius | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – |
Interesting Records:
- India has lost only one of the last ten bilateral T20I series.
- India has won 12 consecutive T20Is.
- South Africa (SA) has never lost a T20I series in India.
- Yuzvendra Chahal has dismissed Quinten de Kock six times in the T20s.
- David Miller has been dismissed by Yuzi Chahal three times and four times by Hardik Pandya in the T20s.
- No Indian bowler from the current squad has dismissed Aiden Markram in the T20s.
- Kagiso Rabad is just one wicket away from 50 T20I wickets.
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