cricket

Updated: Sep 15, 2019 11:27 IST

Ahead of the first T20I between India and South Africa, Team India head coach Ravi Shastri shared a picture with opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan on Sunday in which both men are seen engaged in some serious conversation. Shastri posted the picture on Twitter and wrote “Coffee, Mountains, Cricket and Conversation - with @SDhawan25 #TeamIndia #IndvSA,” as the caption.

Opening batsman Dhawan did not have a successful tour to West Indies as he managed to score just 26 runs in the three-match T20I series.

In the 50-over format, he managed to score just 38 runs from two ODIs.

Ahead of the match, skipper Virat Kohli said the team has deliberately given youngsters a chance in the series looking at their performances in the domestic circuit for the past two to three years.

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“We wanted to give opportunities to players who have done well for the past two years in the domestic circuit and T20 cricket in the IPL. It is about finding the best possible balance we can for the side and not necessarily stick to one particular type of balance. If other teams can bat till number nine, so why cannot we? Whatever decisions are made, they are made looking at the future,” Kohli told reporters on Saturday.

“The first two to three T20I series will help us assess every situation. Definitely the roadmap for T20 World Cup in 2020 is on our mind. It is an exciting prospect looking at the new bunch of guys in our lineup,” he further said.

The Men in Blue are coming off a winning run in the limited-overs format as they defeated Windies in both T20I and ODI series.

India defeated Windies 3-0 in the T20Is whereas they outclassed the team from the Caribbean 2-0 in ODI series.

India’s squad for three T20Is against Proteas includes Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, and Navdeep Saini.

The side will take on South Africa in the three-match T20I series and three-match Test series.

The first T20I will be played later today at Dharamshala.

(With inputs from ANI)