The Indian cricket team takes on the South African team for the first match of the series of five T20 Internationals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on 9 June. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma after winning the toss decided to field in the first match of the series.
After the injury of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant has been given the command of the team. Not only Rahul, India’s key players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja are also not playing in the series. While South Africa have all the important players as part of the team and its captain Temba Bavuma is full of confidence.
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For Indian coach Rahul Dravid, handling the top batting order with Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer could show the way to win the series.
Before going ahead with the match, here are the top 10 interesting facts:
1) India have won just one of their four men’s T20I matches played against South Africa in India.
2) This is the first men’s T20I game between India and South Africa at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
3) India currently have 12 consecutive wins in men’s T20I games and are aiming to become the first team to win 13 consecutive games across the format.
4) South Africa have won 11 of their last 12 matches in the men’s T20I format, including their last four matches on the bounce.
5) India has hit a boundary every 5.7 balls in men’s T20I matches since early 2021.
6) India’s direct hit rate when fielding in men’s T20Is since early 2021 is 19.1%, the best in the format among all full member sides.
7) Only Pakistan batsmen have registered more than 50+ scores in men’s T20Is since early 2021 compared to Indian batsmen.
8) Yuzvendra Chahal (India – 274 wickets) needs just three more wickets to overtake Ravichandran Ashwin (276 wickets) to become the highest T20 wicket-taker by Indian bowlers.
9) Rassie van der Dussen of South Africa is 67 runs away from becoming the eight Proteas batsman to score 1000 runs in the men’s T20I format.
10) India’s Shreyas Iyer has a batting average of 63 in men’s T20Is since early 2021, with only Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan (71) and England’s Jos Buttler (65) having better averages than the Indian in the format.