India vs South Africa 2022: Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav and Shahbaz Ahmed added to India’s T20I squad
As announced by the Indian Cricket Board, the management and selectors have got together and have made four changes to the squad which is set to take on South Africa in a three match T20I series starting today.
Mohammed Shami, who has presently been sidelined, is yet to recover from Covid-19. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya have been kept out of the side because they are going to the National Cricket Academy at Bengaluru to work on strength and conditioning.
Deepak Hooda is set to miss the T20I series against South Africa due to a back strain. And so, in light of recent events, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed have been added as replacements. It is also reported that Arshdeep Singh, who did not play in the series against Australia, will in all likelihood slot in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Umesh Yadav played as a replacement for Mohammed Shami in the T20I series against Australia in what was a surprise comeback. Shahbaz Ahmed gets his second stint with the Indian team after he was named in the India squad for the Zimbabwe ODI series that India won 3-0 but did not get to play a game.
Shreyas Iyer is named in the reserves for the 20-20 World Cup 2022 and will be looking to impress in the sudden opportunity that he could get. Umesh Yadav, after a poor performance in the Australia series, is likely to warm the benches and the chances of Shahbaz Ahmed getting a game against South Africa look very bleak.
India have been in good form when it comes to T20I cricket, having defeated Australia 2-1 in the just concluded series. But they will have their task cut out against a high-quality Proteas side who are rearing to go. It is interesting to note that they have not lost a bilateral T20I series in India.
This will be the last set of matches for the Men in Blue before the 20-20 World Cup takes centre stage.
