Training for excellence; men in blue fine tune skills ahead of T20I clash against South Africa

Under the leadership of skipper KL Rahul and head coach Dravid, team India hit the ground up & running for the T20I series opener against South Africa. The Indian players who were representing different franchises in the IPL are now united under one roof and will wear the Indian blues for the upcoming South Africa series which in many ways is their first test before the 2022 ICC T20I world cup. 

With breaks being handed over to the talismans of Indian cricket including the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah there are a lot of opportunities for the young Indian side to impress the management and put themselves forward in contention for the World Cup T20 squad. The likes of Gaikwad, Hooda, Umran, and Arshdeep who are all eyeing a place in the eleven trained hard in the training session and look to be a part of the team when they take the field against South Africa. 

Head Coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathour and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey have all stayed back in India to guide the youngsters and to observe who fits the bill in the current India setup. With Rohit Sharma on break, the onus to win this series falls upon KL Rahul who fared decently while leading Lucknow Super Giant to the knockouts of the cash-rich Indian Premier League. 

India’s debacle at the 2021 ICC T20I World Cup played in the UAE had raised a lot of eyebrows about the intent and approach of cricket which Rahul Dravid now seems to revive. It will be interesting to see what team India plans ahead of the star-studded tournament that is scheduled to be played in Australia later this year.

Indian Squad:

KL Rahul (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(VC) (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Y Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.