Johannesburg: Suresh Raina, who after a year’s gap, made it to the national team would be raring to go and prove a point or two when India take on South In the first T20I at the Wanderers on Sunday.
Having fallen out of favour since the T20I against England in Bengaluru last year, Raina has had a tough time making a comeback. But once he cleared the Yo-Yo test and courtesy his impressive performances in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament last month, the Uttar Pradesh southpaw once again finds his name in the Indian squad for the T20I series.
He would also be under pressure to perform, because he would take the field representing an Indian side, that has achieved newer levels of greatness following their record 5-1 ODI series win over the Proteas.
After a disappointing Test series, India have bounced back in grand fashion, with skipper Virat Kohli leading the way with over 500 runs in the ODI series, that has taken the fight out of the Proteas side, which missed a few of their key players due to injury.
But T20I cricket is different. Despite India being the, ‘favourites’ walking into the series, the Proteas, under skipper JP Duminy could spring a surprise or two, although chances of the latter happening is highly unlikely, especially after the management decided to rest some big names for the three-match series.
Proteas star batsman AB de Villiers, who has had a quiet return to the ODI side from the finger injury could anyday prove to be a threat, especially in the shortest version of the game, where a batsman has the full-license to go after the bowling.
That being said, the Indian bowling wouldn’t be easy to face, especially after the Chahal-Kuldeep rampage in the ODIs, which flattened the hosts completely, leaving them with no clue whatsoever.
Skipper Kohli, would require 44 more runs to breach the 2000-run mark in T20Is after the Kiwi-duo of Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum.
The last few T20Is at the same venue has seen scores like 232, 207 and 172 being chased down, which indicates that the clash could be a high-scoring one. Will India once again dictate proceedings? Or will the Proteas, eyeing a fresh start bounce back and come up with a surprise win?
Squads-
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Lokesh Rahul, Jaydev Unadkat, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur.
South Africa: Reeza Hendricks, JJ Smuts, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy(c), David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Junior Dala, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Farhaan Behardien, Christiaan Jonker, Tabraiz Shamsi.