New Delh, June 9: Team India received a big jolt after skipper K.L. Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav were ruled out of the entire T20I series against South Africa. While, Rahul has been ruled out owing to a right groin injury, Kuldeep Yadav will be missing the tournament after being hit on his right hand while batting in the nets on Wednesday.
The BCCI Senior Selection Committee has named wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant as the stand-in Captain for the series with Hardik Pandya being his deputy. Both, Rahul and Yadav will report to the NCA where the medical team will assess them further and decide on the future course of treatment.
Meanwhile, the home series against South Africa will be ideal preparation for the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia later this year. India will also look at avenging the loss they suffered while they toured South Africa early this year. The visitors lost both the ODI and Test series.
Though India will be missing the services of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Mohammed Shami including K.L. Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav, they have named a strong side capable of delivering a strong fight against the visiting Proteas.
India’s T20I squad: Rishabh Pant (Captain)(wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik
South Africa’s T20I squad: Temba Bavuma (c),David Miller, Aiden Markram, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks, Tristan Stubbs (wk), Dwaine Pretorius,Marco Jansen, Quinton De Kock (wk), Heinrich Klaasen (wk),Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi,Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell and Lungisani Ngidi.
The first of the five-match series will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi and the match will commence at 7 pm.