The Indian cricket team is facing the South African team for the first of the five T20I match-series at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on 9 June. Despite winning the toss, South African skipper Temba Bavuma decided to field in the very first game of the series.
Following the injury of KL Rahul, Risabh Pant has been given the responsibility to lead the team. Not only Rahul, India’s key players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja are not playing in the series too. While South Africa has all the crucial players as part of the squad and its skipper Temba Bavuma seems confident.
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For Indian coach Rahul Dravid, juggling the top batting order with Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer may show the path to clinching the series.
Before moving on with the match, here are the top 10 interesting facts:
1) India has won just one of their four men’s T20I games played against South Africa in India.
2) This is set to be the first men’s T20I game between India and South Africa at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
3) India has currently registered 12 consecutive wins in men’s T20I games and aims to become the first team to win 13 consecutive games in the format.
4) South Africa has won 11 of their last 12 games in the men’s T20I format including their last four games on the bounce.
5) India has struck a boundary every 5.7 balls in men’s T20I matches since the beginning of 2021.
6) India has a direct hit rate of 19.1% while fielding in men’s T20Is since the beginning of 2021, the best in the format amongst all full member sides.
7) Only Pakistan batters have registered more 50+ scores in men’s T20Is since the beginning of 2021 than the Indian batters.
8) Yuzvendra Chahal (India – 274 wickets) needs just three more wickets to leapfrog Ravichandran Ashwin (276 wickets) in becoming the Indian bowler with the most T20 wickets.
9) SA’s Rassie van der Dussen is 67 runs away from becoming the eight Proteas batter to score 1000 runs in men’s T20I format.
10) India’s Shreyas Iyer has a batting average of 63 in men’s T20Is since the beginning of 2021, only Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan (71) and England’s Jos Buttler (65) has a better average than the Indian in the format.
