India face South Africa in 1st T20 today

DURBAN, Dec 09 (Agencies): After registering a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Australia at home, team India will face a big challenge on lively South African pitches in a three-match T20 International starting Sunday.
The mainstays of India's battling line-up are not part of the team for this tour as Rohit and Virat have taken a break from white-ball cricket for an indefinite period. Once again, skipper Suryakumar Yadav will have to marshal his troops well, and that could pave the way for the emerging crop of match winners, such as Rinku Singh and Ravi Bishnoi.
The Proteas will also be missing the services of their top bowlers, including Kagiso Rabada (rested), Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi - but they are still a force to be reckoned with at home.
South Africa has several unfamiliar faces for the three-match T20 series with India, but captain Aiden Markram said it will impose its attacking style ahead of next year's World Cup.
Having rested a number of leading players, the host has named batters Matthew Breetzke and Donovan Ferreira, and seamers Ottniel Baartman, Nandre Burger and Lizaad Williams in its squad for the series.
Beuran Hendricks, who has not played for the team in over two years, was also a late inclusion on Friday after regular Lungi Ngidi pulled out with injury.
"We have played a lot against the new faces (in domestic cricket), but I suppose you'd like to know them better on a deeper level before going into a series with them," Markram told reporters on Saturday.
"But we have had a few good days together getting to understand what gets them to tick. I suppose that is the nature of cricket nowadays, series come thick and fast and there will be stages where new guys come in and they are going to have to find their feet quickly."
The T20 World Cup will be held in the West Indies and United States from June 4-30 and there are only a few opportunities for South Africa in the shortest format between now and then, with most of its players involved in domestic T20 leagues in the first half of next year.
"There is a lot of cricket in between but not a lot of cricket for us as a team together," Markram said.
"As long as the guys understand the way that we want to try play as a team and can keep that close to them when playing in different leagues and tournaments. Then hopefully by the time we meet up for the World Cup, the guys are used to that brand and how we want to operate as a team."
India's all-format tour will start with three T20 matches in Durban, Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) and Johannesburg from Sunday to Thursday.
They then switch format for three One-Day Internationals between December 17-21, played in the latter two venues and Paarl.
The two-match Test series begins on December 26 in Pretoria, with the second fixture on January 3 at Newlands in Cape Town.
Squads: India: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottniel Baartman, Matthew Breetzke, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee (1st and 2ndT20Is), Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen (1st and 2nd T20s), Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, and Lizaad Williams.