Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma Ruled Out Of ICC World Cup, Hardik Pandya To Lead India’s Squad. India will be touring South Africa for a full-fledged series from December 10, 2023-January 7, 2024. They will play three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches. The Test series will be a part of the ongoing ICC WTC 2023-25.
The series will begin with the three-match T20I series. The matches will be played on December 10 (1st T20I Durban), December 12 (2nd T20I, Gqeberha), December 14 (3rd T20I, Johannesburg).
The T20I series will be followed by ODI and Test series. India have not won a T20 World Cup winning the inaugural edition in 2007. Since then they made made the finals only once in 2014.
India faced a league-stage exit in the T20 World Cup 2021, while they lost to England in the semi-final in 2022. With the T20 World Cup 2024, knocking on the door, the T20I series will be a dress- rehearsal for Team India.
Currently, they are playing a T20I series against West Indies and are 0-2 down in the five-match series. India needs to win the last three games to win the T20I series against West Indies.
The T20I squad selection is expected to be very different with India prioritisng experimentation in the build-up to the T20 World Cup in West Indies/USA.
Senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli might be rested once again as the think tank might prefer choosing a young side under Hardik Pandya’s leadership. In this article, we predict India’s 15-member T20I squad for the series against South Africa.
Under Pandya’s leadership, Gill might get an extended run in T20Is. He is one of the youngest Indian players to already have scored hundreds across formats.
Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul might be the other choices for the opener’s role. Both of them can also keep in the absence of Rishabh Pant whose return to international cricket is yet not confirmed. Both Kishan and Rahul can thus take the gloves for India.
