Harbhajan Singh, a former Indian cricketer, has revealed his anticipated India XI for the opening T20I of the five-match series against South Africa. Despite the fact that the game would be played in dew, Harbhajan believes that the Indian squad should field two specialist spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy, with left-arm orthodox Axar Patel also making an appearance.
The top four remained the same, with Abhishek Sharma and the returning Shubman Gill opening the batting, followed by captain Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. Harbhajan chose Jitesh Sharma over Sanju Samson as the wicketkeeper. He chose Axar and a returning Hardik Pandya as his all-rounders, skipping Shivam Dube.
Harbhajan’s bowling lineup included two pacers and as many spinners. He left Harshit Rana out. Harshit recently represented the Men in Blue in all three ODIs of the 50-over leg, taking four wickets at an economy rate of 6.39.
“From this series, the face and the final combination of the Indian team will become visible. We’ll see who the players are that’ll remain in the XI. There might be a change or two, if the pitch is green, you might add an extra seamer. But otherwise, Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav must play together because they are wicket-takers,” shared Harbhajan in a video on his YouTube channel.
Harbhajan’s XI for India against South Africa for the first T20I:
Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy
India
