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India get ready for the tour of South Africa by naming their 15 member squad for a five match T20I series. The comeback of Hardik Pandya, who has been out of action for over two months, is the highlight while Rinku Singh and Nitish Kumar Reddy didn’t get selected.
Injured in the neck during the first Test in Kolkata, Shubman Gill has been named in the squad as well. Though his participation depends on the fitness clearance he gets from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. Suryakumar Yadav is going to be the captain of the team once more for the series which starts on December 9th.
Two players Rinku Singh and Nitish Kumar Reddy were members of the India squad for the T20I series in Australia, and now they have been singled out as the only players who didn’t make the cut for the upcoming T20I tour of South Africa. Rinku hardly did anything on the tour of Australia he neither got to bat nor did he play in the rain interrupted final match of Brisbane. Meanwhile, he has reentered the local cricket scene playing for Uttar Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Reddy was also left without a game in Australia, and with Hardik becoming available again, it was obvious that he would be dropped.
On Tuesday in the SMAT, Hardik, who is eager to get back in the Indian team, was seen doing a good job for Baroda. He started the bowling and got 1 for 52 and then went on to score an unbeaten 77 off 42 balls with a lot of ease the last game he played was the Asia Cup Super Fours match on September 26.
In case Gill does not manage to recover on time, Sanju Samson might be asked to open the innings with Abhishek Sharma. Samson is already an opener for Kerala in domestic T20s and was No. 3 in the only match that was completed during the Australia tour, in which he batted. Jitesh Sharma has been selected as the second wicketkeeper.
The pace attack of the Indians will be led by Jasprit Bumrah and he will get assistance from Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. India have strengthened their allround department with the inclusion of Hardik, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar whereas Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav are the ones who will spin the ball.
On December 9, 11, 14, 17, and 19, the T20Is will be held in Cuttack, New Chandigarh, Dharamsala, Lucknow, and Ahmedabad respectively. The squad was made public during the second ODI in Raipur. South Africa has already won the Test series 2 0 while India is leading the ODI series 1 0.
