India’s 1st T20I against South Africa was washed out without a single ball being bowled as rain played spoilsport in Durban on Sunday. The Indian team is set to take on the Proteas for the 2nd T20I on December 12, Tuesday. The match will be held in Gqeberha and eyes will be on the skies again with rain forecast at St. George’s Park on Tuesday afternoon.
The selectors picked up a 17-member squad for the 3-match T20I series against South Africa. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra had earlier expressed disappointment with the squad strength and questioned why a 17-member squad was picked for a 3-match series and said that it would be a tough job to pick and choose the first XI and give consistent opportunities to a young side that will be led by Suryakumar Yadav.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, he reckoned that six of the players wouldn’t get to play cricket in the series at all, claiming that India will most probably go with the same team for the 3rd T20I as that chosen for the 2nd T20I.
“Only a two-match series is left. It means six people will now not play cricket in this series. So six people from the 17-member squad will not get a chance now because whoever you play today, you will play them in the next match as well. It is obvious,” Aakash Chopra said.
With one of the matches being washed out, India would now have only 5 T20Is left before the T20 World Cup that is scheduled to take place in June 2024. During the 5-match T20I series against Australia, the young Indian side under the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav showed their readiness for the bigger stage. Rinku Singh, at number 5, finished games for India. Ruturaj Gaikwad at the top order, scored century. Ravi Bishnoi spun a web and picked the joint-most tally of wickets in a T20I series for India — 9..
Chopra picked Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the first-choice openers, leaving out Gaikwad for the remainder of the T20I series.
“So who will open? I feel they will ask Ruturaj to wait because he plays ODIs as well. So he can play ODIs and they can get Yashasvi and Shubman to open here. In the middle order, I feel Rinku Singh at No. 5 and Jitesh Sharma at No. 6,” said Chopra.
Ruturaj amassed 223 runs in the 5-match series against Australia and became the highest run scorer in a T20I bilateral against Australia. He also got a century under his belt by scoring 123 runs in 57 balls. Jaiswal, on the other hand, maintained a staggering strike rate of 168.29 throughout the series. He provided an aggressive start to the team in powerplay. In the 2nd T20I, he smashed 53 runs in just 25 balls, which is the highest score by an Indian batter in powerplay. Gaikwad is part of the ODI and the Test series against South Africa while Gill and Jaiswal have been kept out.
