When Team India arrived in Durban for the forthcoming multi-format series against South Africa, which begins with the first Twenty20 International on Sunday, they were greeted with great warmth.
The fans at the airport welcomed the Men in Blue and took pictures with them as they touched down in the Rainbow Nation. In a video that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared on X (formerly Twitter), players can be seen being greeted warmly by hotel staff as they arrive at a South African airport. A three-match Twenty20 International series will begin the all-format tour of South Africa on Sunday and run through December 14.
The white-ball series’ ODI leg will begin on December 17 and run through September 21.
The video featured the Men in Blue, which included Mohammed Siraj, head coach Rahul Dravid, Suryakumar Yadav, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.Senior players like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and captain Rohit Sharma will miss the white-ball leg of the all-format series. The top T20I batsman, Suryakumar Yadav, will captain the T20I team, while KL Rahul will captain the ODI team. Call-ups for the ODI squad have gone to young players like Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Sai Sudarshan, and Rajat Patidar.
The two-match Test series, which will see the first Test held in Centurion starting on December 26 and the second Test in Cape Town starting on January 3, will feature the return of senior players. Since India hasn’t won a Test series in South Africa, Indian supporters will be most anticipating this red-ball leg of the series.
The teams for Cricket South Africa (CSA)’s home multi-format series against India were revealed on Monday. Playoffs start on Sunday. For the India series, South Africa’s Test team has called up fast bowler Nandre Burger, batsmen David Bedingham and Tristan Stubbs, and wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne for the first time.
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (Wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna are the members of India’s Test team.
The following players represent India in the three Twenty20 Internationals: Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Mohd. Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Jitesh Sharma, Mohd. Kishan, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), and Rinku Singh. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (Wk), Sanju Samson (Wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Deepak Chahar are the members of the Indian squad for the three One-day Internationals.
