India tour of South Africa will begin on the 8th of November, and due to it coinciding with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, several players will miss out on the T20 series.
India is scheduled to play four T20I games and will be led by skipper Suryakumar Yadav, as the T20s will be held in Durban, Gqueberha, Centurion, and Johannesburg on the 8th, 10th, 13th, and 15th of November.
The new additions to the side include Ramandeep Singh, the lower-order batter who has emerged as one of the finest finishers in the shortest format of the game. Ramandeep first came into the limelight with his staggering hits down the format for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Ramandeep was next a crucial part of KKR’s lower order, though, in a team full of heavyweight all-rounders, he came into bat down the order often at no. 7 or 8, as Singh faced only 62 balls throughout the tournament while scoring 125 runs at a strike rate of 201.
Alongside this, Ramandeep is an electric fielder in the outfield, which he often portrayed during his days at KKR and also played for India A recently in the Emerging Asia Cup. Ramandeep’s efforts paid off, as the batter tried his best to give India an upper hand in the semi-final of the Emerging Asia Cup, which India eventually lost to Afghanistan A.
IPL heroes Vijaykumar Vyshak and Yash Dayal have also been called up for the upcoming T20 schedule in South Africa. Dayal was called in for the Bangladesh test series, but he is yet to make his debut for the Indian side, while Dayal was also included in India A’s tour to Australia prior to the BGT.
Dayal withdrew his name from the Australian team as he anticipates finding a spot in the playing 11 for the T20Is against South Africa. These two were among the five pacers to obtain contracts from the BCCI.
Ramandeep has found a place in place of Riyan Parag, the batting all-rounder who is undergoing rehabilitation at the NCA after his reported right shoulder injury. Also, Shivam Dube extends his back issue that ruled him out of the home series against Bangladesh, and likely Tilak Varma also finds a place in the Indian team in South Africa.
Likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Washington Sundar, as well as Harshit Rana, miss out due to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, as Avesh Khan and Axar Patel get calls back into the Indian team.
India Squad for South Africa T20s: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
