Focus shifts to T20Is & return of Hardik before World Cup

EVEN as Indian cricket is still smiling about the spectacular ODI series win against South Africa in Visakhapatnam, the caravan has already been moved a little further along the East coast to Cuttack.

- GOMESH S @ Chennai

This time, however, it will be a different team under a different captain, Suryakumar Yadav, playing the T20 format against the same opponents. The context of the series takes precedence as it is the penultimate T20I series India will play going into the home World Cup in February. Which is why, these five matches between the 2024 T20 World Cup finalists take significance.

For India have as many as ten matches to figure out their best possible combination while assessing and monitoring the fitness of some of the key players. At the top of that list would be Hardik Pandya who is making a comeback to the Indian team after the Asia Cup in September.