India look for encore of ODI victory

Johannesburg: On a high after the demolition of South Africa in the ODIs, an upbeat India will be aiming to tighten the noose around the beleagured hosts when they square off in a three-match T20 series, starting here on Sunday.

Having created history by thrashing South Africa 5-1 in the ODI series, Virat Kohli and his men will be looking to carry the same momentum and intensity going into the shortest format, with veteran Suresh Raina under the spotlight as he makes a comeback into the national team after one year.

The defeat in the Test series now seems to be a story of a distant past and India will begin as overwhelming favourites with spin twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal ready to torment the opposition all over again.

India have fond memories of playing T20 cricket on the South African soil as they won their first ever match in the shortest format in the Rainbow nation back in 2006 followed by the historic World T20 triumph under Mahendra Singh Dhoni a year later. Since the 2017 Champions Trophy, India have played 10 T20Is, winning seven of those matches. As such, they have a stable formula to rely on in the shortest format as well.

Raina, KL Rahul and Jaydev Unadkat are the new additions to the Indian contingent here for this T20 series. The trio had a two-hour net session at Centurion on Friday before the start of the sixth ODI. There was also an optional practice session scheduled on Saturday at the Wanderers.

In their last T20 engagement at home against Sri Lanka, Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were two key players who were rested. In their absence, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj and Washington Sundar were able to get an outing on the international stage. Among the trio, only Iyer has made it to the current squad and it remains to be seen if he is included in the playing XI.

The young batsman has had starts in the two ODIs he played in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, scoring 18 and 30. His composure was more impressive than his run-tally though, never mind the dropped catches. Yet, he might lose out to the returning Raina, who is a particularly handy all-rounder in this format.

Raina’s return is the most intriguing aspect of the T20 series from an Indian point of view. He hasn’t played ODI cricket since 2015, and last featured in a T20I series twelve months ago against England. He scored 104 runs in three matches, inclusive of a half-century, but didn’t bowl enough overs.

It did fuel aspirations of a possible return to the ODI set-up with the Champions Trophy in sight, but the selectors ignored him despite scoring 442 runs in the 2017 IPL for Gujarat Lions. His continued absence from the T20I set-up during the 2017-18 home season raised eyebrows, but it was revealed that he had failed the now compulsory Yo-Yo fitness test and hence missed out on selection.

He cleared that test in December and finished sixth in the runs’ chart (314 runs in 9 matches inclusive of one hundred and two half-centuries) for Uttar Pradesh during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. It is easy to assume that Raina will walk back into the playing XI and his performances will be keenly noted, given that India will also play a T20I tri-series in Sri Lanka later in March.

Teams (from):

SOUTH AFRICA: JP Duminy (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Junior Dala, AB de Villiers, Reeza Hendricks, Christiaan Jonker, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Chris Morris, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Jon-Jon Smuts.

INDIA: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur.