India in South Africa: Looking to drive home the bench strength

India has the largest pool of players, and 45 of them in three formats as well as an A team will be put to test on the tour starting on Sunday

- Rasesh Mandani

In the post Covid world, leading cricket nations have embraced the idea of overlapping series. Players get more opportunities to win international caps. Equally, the parallel franchise league calendar constantly tests the robustness of the talent pool.

Australian cricket did it in the 90s with Australia and Australia A competing in international quadrangular series the two home teams even made the finals over England and Zimbabwe in the 1995 B&H World Series. Now, it's India's turn to flex their muscle. Even as drawing their white-ball programmes based on the year's ICC event becomes a norm, leading nations like India manage to put together an altogether different, and more-than-competitive, squad for the other white-ball format to honour commitments and protect broadcast dollar.

India have played the most T20I cricket in the last three years, fielded the most players (54) and handed out the most debuts (27). In ODIS, India are next only to West Indies in terms of most players used (46) and debutants (20). Ten days before the 2022 T20 World Cup, the Shikhar Dhawanled ODI team played South Africa at home. This year, Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Indian T20 team won gold at the Asian games while the main team was preparing for the home ODI World Cup.