IND vs SA, 1st T20I: Rohit Sharma and co. are on a roll right now as they are coming off fresh from a 2-1 series victory against current world champions Australia. On their road to the World Cup, India will now take on South Africa as their next set of challenges. Temba Bavuma and co. had previously toured India in June for a five-match T20I series that ended in a draw. The series was played under the leadership of Rishabh Pant, but this time around, the men in blue will field a full-strength team against the Proteas.
Lately, India has had loads of issues, especially in their death bowling department. The men in blue have leaked important runs in the crucial stages and that has cost them the game on more than one occasion. Bhuvneshwar Kumar especially has been facing criticism as he crumbled under pressure and gave away important runs against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the Super 4s stage of the Asia Cup. Now India's batting coach Vikram Rathour has come forward and has tried to explain what went wrong for team India that led to their debacle.
Batting coach Vikram Rathour said:
We are working on that area of getting better at defending targets. But to be fair to our bowlers, toss plays a vital role and every time we have not been able to defend are the places where there has been dew, so it gets easier to chase. I won't be harsh on bowlers as they have been able to push the match till the last over, whenever we are looking to defend. It's one ball here and there but of course, we are doing pretty well, and hopefully, we will get better.
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As far as the South African team is concerned, they have enjoyed a good run in the T20 format for the last 12 months. South Africa has won 13 out of their 18 T20Is. They drew a series against India earlier this year and then went to defeat England in their backyard. The major dilemma that South Africa will have is to drop someone from their well-settled side to make way for Temba Bavuma, their skipper who has been overlooked by all the six franchises at the auction for the inaugural season of the SA20.
