🏏South Africa vs India, 2nd T20I: At St George's Park, Gqeberha 🏏 - Page 3

Thank you Raji for the tag

All the best team India

hopefully we will see some action today

I am not understanding why selection committee is playing with players to show off that they are considering other players in the team for the world cup when they very well know -

Kohli

Jadeja

Shami

Bumrah

Kuldeep

Hardik

Gill

SKY

Siraj / Iyer

These 9 players they will be ultimately selecting in playing 11

So 2 spots empty for wicket keeper and finisher

Whether Ishan Kishan or KL Rahul (they can open too with Gill)

Rinku singh or Jitesh Sharma

Hello and a warm welcome to our live coverage of the second match of the 3-match T20I series between India and South Africa at Gqeberha. The series opener was abandoned due to rain. There’s prediction for rain during this game too but the good news is that it’s not raining at present. The Proteas lost in the semi-final against Australia in the World Cup around a month back - it was another tough pill to swallow for them after having performed brilliantly in the round-robin stage. The Men in Blue, too, had their hopes shattered after they faltered big time in the finals in front of the Aussies. The fact that India won the T20I series 4-1 against Australia which took place just after the World Cup would have helped them to recoup a bit. However, the heartbreak of losing a World Cup does hit differently. For the Proteas, they now enter into the limelight once again after the World Cup. It presents them an opportunity to make new beginnings.

Take two! Hello, everyone. Let's start again. Rain played spoilsport in the opening T20I between India and South Africa in Durban without even a ball being bowled. And that leads us to Gqeberha for the second T20I between the two sides. I am Ashish Pant and will soon be joined by Himanshu Agrawal, as we (hopefully) get the ball rolling on this T20I series.

International games are of utmost importance but global T20 leagues have carved a niche for themselves. The upcoming season of IPL and SA20 would throw up opportunities to promising players to make a mark – and who knows, a dominant run might see them spring up into the national side for the 2024 T20 World Cup. Coming back to this game, conditions would be overcast and that would bring the pacers into play. South Africa would want to catch the visitors off guard before they acclimatize to the foreign conditions. Let's hope the drizzle stops soon and we get to witness a fascinating encounter! The promising thing is that the radar shows that the rain should clear in the evening.

The T20I World Cup in the USA and West Indies is just around 6 months away. Both sides would be eyeing to zero in on a settled unit – they only have five T20Is each before the marquee event to do that. Some big names are missing from the home side. The onus would be on the youngsters to rise to the occasion. Perhaps, they can take a leaf out of India’s books as their youngsters have played some fearless cricket in this format. Markram has been in terrific form with the bat off late. The hosts would want him to lead from the front. For India, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj are back in the mix after being rested against Australia. It would be interesting to see what combination the visitors go in with.

Shankar : "Rain being one concern for this series, more worrying part for SA is their current T20 form with WC within the reach. Given their line-up, surprising to see them losing 4 matches consecutively and given away more than 10 RPO in all of them.. exposing their weak bowling line-up."

A key reason why this series is important for both sides is that they have just five T20Is to nail down their combination for the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. So game time is of utmost importance. Of course, there is the SA20 and IPL where a lot of the players will get chances. But nothing like a T20I, isn't it?

For fringe players, then, this series presents a massive opportunity. South Africa could have two debutants - both bowlers in left-arm quick Nandre Burger, and right-arm medium-fast Ottniel Baartman - and might give opening batter Matthew Breetzke a run in the remaining two games. India don't have any uncapped players in their touring group, but four of their squad - Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma - have played 10 T20Is or fewer. Firdose Moonda sets the scene in the preview.

Retief vd Merwe: "Must be funny for India to not see one person in the stands ??? They are use to a crowd of 100 000 people " Not fair to say there is not one person in the stand. The white-ball games, at least, are expected to see packed crowds. It's just the rain has put a dampener on proceedings.

Mustafa Moudi : "This series is not just good for the preparation of the upcoming T20I World Cup, but also a great chance for the South African players to impress the IPL Teams and attract bids for the IPL 2024 Auction next week !!"