IND vs SA 1st T20I: Ahead of the 1st T20I between India and South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram, BCCI has added Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed to the series. Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami will miss the home series against South Africa. Hooda has been ruled out due to injury, while Kumar and Pandya have reported to the NCA for conditioning-related work.
Shami will also miss the Proteas challenge ahead of the T20 World Cup. Earlier media reports stated that Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed have been added to the squad while BCCI has now confirmed releasing a statement. BCCI also stated that Arshdeep Singh has also linked up with the Indian squad.
Umesh Yadav first replaced Mohammed Shami for the T20I series against Australia as the 32-year-old Shami was diagnosed with Covid-19 ahead of the series. Yadav played in the first match while he made a place for Jasprit Bumrah in the next two outings. In the first match, Yadav scalped two wickets in his 2 overs and gave 27 runs. Before this match, the 34-year-old Yadav featured in only seven T20Is for India.
Also, Iyer, who replaces Deepak Hooda for the Proteas series has played 46 T20Is for India and has scored 1029 runs. Whereas, the 27-year-old Shahbaz Ahmed is yet to make his debut for India. Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh has now been included in the Proteas challenge.
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India and South Africa will play against each other in a three-match T20I series, starting on 28th September. The two teams will meet on October 2 for the second T20I and on October 4 for the third and final game. This will be the last T20I series for both teams before they board the flight to Australia for the 2022 T20 World Cup.
