The Indian team is currently in South Africa and are all geared up for the first game of the series. The one-month tour consists of 3 T20Is, 3 Odis, and 2 tests, which going to kick start from 10 Dec. The Indian team will be without their senior players Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, and Shami for the white ball leg and they will join the squad for the test matches. Siraj who is picked for T20Is is rested from the ODIs to get enough rest before the Test series.
Both Rohit and Kohli have not played any t20is since the last T20 WC. The board has expressed that they were happy to continue with Rohit as captain for the upcoming marquee event, meanwhile certain rumors are going around that Virat might be dropped from the T20Is with Ishan Kishan expected to take his spot. The pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are still expected to play a role in the T20 World Cup next year and they might be picked up for the T20I series against Afghanistan.
In no way it means that bilateral T20Is aren’t important- Paras Mhambrey
Speaking ahead of the series Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey has said that younger players were picked in the bilaterals to “understand the team’s areas of adaptability”.
“In no way it means that bilateral T20Is aren’t important,” he continued. “All I’m saying is that there is a balance that every player must maintain. Also it depends on who we are talking about. Players like Rohit, Virat look at very specific areas in their T20 games be it IPL or India,” said Paras Mhambrey.
With most of the players touring South Africa for the first time, Mhambrey said
“One would like to watch younger players during bilaterals and examine and understand areas of their adaptability – game awareness, pressure situations, how they adapt to these varied situations the Indian jersey carries,” he stated.
They will always pick Test cricket first – Mhambrey on the budding cricketers.
Mhambrey said people will never say no to test cricket and an aspiring bowler would always pick test cricket as the format they want to excel.
“I would never say people don’t want to play red-ball cricket. Even now if you ask any aspiring fast bowler or spinner what is the format you want to excel in, he will always pick Test cricket first,” he said.
He backed his words saying that some bowlers who are just playing white-ball cricket currently have tried the test format before and are playing white-ball cricket knowing that they are better suitable for that.
“Yes, obviously, there will be some bowlers, who would choose the white ball format. They would have probably played all formats and then decided that their game and skill sets suited the white ball format more. Now that will be a very individual call and no one can do anything about it,” he concluded.
The series will start on 10 Dec with the T20i series and will be followed by the ODIs and Tests.