A quick T20I sideshow amid India’s Test challenges

While the Indian men’s Test squad prepares to face Australia ahead of their five-match series, the T20I team will face South Africa in the first of four games in Durban on November 8. Only one member of the Test squad that lost to New Zealand 0-3 recently is part of the T20I setup, Axar Patel, which is indicative of the times and how the BCCI has another chance to shape the shortest format players it wants for the 2026 T20 World Cup. 

India are 6-0 under Suryakumar Yadav in T20Is, having swept Sri Lanka away and Bangladesh at home. Things have settled in well for Suryakumar’s squad, with experienced players such as Sanju Samson finding some form and rookies like Mayank Yadav, Riyan Parag and Nitesh Kumar Reddy leaving a mark. 

Mayank and Reddy are not in South Africa for this series on account of being named in India’s Test pool, and Parag is sidelined with a shoulde injury, and so opportunities will arise for the uncapped pace pair of Yash Dayal and Vijaykumar Vyshak and the allrounder Ramandeep Singh. With the T20 World Cup in the distance, getting to see what these fringe players can offer is largely what such bilateral series are about. 

India will also hope that a player like Samson, who debuted in 2015 but has played a mere 33 T20Is, can turn a corner in South Africa. Samson scored 111 off 47 balls against Bangladesh last month, having bagged two ducks on the Sri Lanka trip, and has four games to nail down his spot. Abhishek Sharma, in contrast, has struggled since he scored his maiden T20I hundred against Zimbabwe with not a single score above 20 in seven subsequent innings. 

With Parag out, Tilak Varma could slot in at No 4 ahead of Rinku Singh and Hardik Pandya. Axar will be the frontline spin-bowling allrounder, leaving the management to pick one of Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy. Arshdeep Singh, who has had an excellent year in T20Is, will be the leader of the bowling attack with Pandya and one from Avesh Khan, Vyshak and Dayal to join him. 

This will be the first time India and South Africa are meeting in T20Is since June 29, when the latter combusted from a position of dominance to hand over the World Cup. 

India likely 11: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Varun Chakravarthy