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The Indian team that will take on South Africa in the upcoming T20I series has started its practice under the watchful eyes of head coach Rahul Dravid. The players are returning to the national team after a gap of over 2 months as the players were busy playing for their respective franchise in the IPL. It's a new look team as many seniors have been rested, including captain Rohit Sharma.
Dwaine Pretorius on Monday said he would like to inculcate the legendary MS Dhoni's calmness and self-belief. The South African made his IPL debut for Chennai Super Kings this year after joining the franchise for a base price of Rs 50 lakh.
The T20 World Cup will be played this year in Australia in October-November and it would be interesting to see how the Rohit Sharma-led side goes about their business in the tournament, having failed to make the semi-finals in the last edition played in the UAE. Former India captain Kapil Dev has said that the current setup needs to change their approach in the shortest format of the game. He also said that Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have the ability of playing at a strike-rate of 150-plus but they need to decide whether they want to play the role of an anchor or striker.
Former India pacer RP Singh has reacted to the decision to rest captain Rohit Sharma for the upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa. Rohit had a below-par Indian Premier League season with the bat as Mumbai Indians finished bottom of the IPL points table. He ended the season with 268 runs from 14 matches, failing to score even a single fifty. RP Singh feels that there was no reason for Rohit to take a break for the South Africa series.
South Africa's limited-overs captain Temba Bavuma had expressed his desire to play and lead a franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Bavuma termed it as his "fantasy". Leading an IPL team might be Bavuma's desire, but leading his national side against India for a five-match T20I series from June 9 is a reality. To make sure the reality turns out to be a rewarding one, Bavuma has been sweating it out at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national Capital - the venue for the first T20 International between the two teams. The next four will be played in Cuttack (June 12), Visakhapatnam (June 14), Rajkot (June 17) and Bengaluru (June 19).
But then there is the call of duty. The South African cricket team has been hitting the nets regularly at Kotla (Arun Jaitley Stadium) despite the city feeling like an incinerator. Their objective is to win the five-match T20I series against India. The IPL stars took it light here on Saturday, but the others toiled hard in the heat. The paradox was evident: Quinton de Kock shadow-practiced his golfing skills with his cricket bat, while another opener in the South African squad, Reeza Hendricks, and skipper Temba Bavuma sweated out.
South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma says the upcoming T20 series against India will be an opportunity for him to identify players for specific roles for the World Cup, which will ne held in Australia later this year. The South African T20 side last competed in November at the World Cup in Sharjah and with the next World event slated to begin in October, Bavuma is keen to marshal his troops. "The conditions in India don't accurately simulate conditions in Australia. In saying that, there's still a lot of benefit from playing. Any type of competitive cricket will be good for us," Bavuma said during a virtual media interaction.
Pacer Mohammed Siraj feels that he needs to work on his consistency before featuring in India's fifth Test against England. India will be squaring off against England for the fifth and final Test of the five-match series on July 1, which earlier got postponed in September 2021 due to COVID-19.