India gear up for Protean challenge with young guns keen to impress

A new chapter awaits for the young guns of India as they take on South Africa for a four-match T20I series. Even though the wounds from the whitewash against New Zealand are far too many and far too fresh, yet ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy, this can be a welcome break and definitely a sterner challenge for the Men in Blue.

This series can pretty well turn out to be a revenge affair for the hosts after they were pipped by the Indian cricket team in the grand finale of the T20 World Cup. However, this is a new-look Team India and many of the faces who spearheaded the charge for Rohit Sharma and company back in Bridgetown won’t be a part of this series.

India will be riding high on the shoulders of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, the two senior players on the side while new faces like Yash Dayal, Tilak Varma and Varun Chakravarthy will like to leave a lasting impact on this series. South Africa, on the contrary, will have their big guns on display in the form of Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Aiden Markram and Keshav Maharaj to try and put India in a tight corner.

Pitch conditions:

The track in Durban has been a belter of a batting featherbed over the days and promises an average first innings score of 184 runs. However, there is a high probability of rain coming in with an 84 percentage chance. With that being on the horizon, the track may attune itself to it, making it more of a balanced affair in case of precipitation.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 27

South Africa: 11

India: 15

Match Details:

South Africa vs India, 1st T20I, 2024

Venue: Kingsmead Stadium, Durban

Date: 8th November, 2024

Time: 8:30 PM

Squads:

India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Daya

South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Reeza Hendricks, Ryan Rickelton (wicketkeeper), Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Andile Simelane, Lutho Sipamla, Tristan Stubbs