India will kick off their home season 2019-20 with a three-match T20I series that starts at HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala tonight.
Post the 2019 World Cup India have made a great start as they whitewashed West Indies in all three formats and now will look to shift that winning momentum into this series. As the T20 World Cup is just one year away team management has already started to build the squad for this mega event by trying out new players.
Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar impressed in West Indies and will be rewarded with more game time. Captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer have been in good form but Shikhar Dhawan is under pressure after a poor outing in West Indies. The overall team is balanced and in-home conditions shouldn't have any issues.
On the other hand, South Africa will play their first game after a disappointing World Cup. Faf du Plessis is rested for this series and Quinton de Kock will lead the side in his absence. South Africa has a young and inexperienced squad for this series and they will hope that their young and new players will put up a good show against a strong Indian side.
All the major stats and facts ahead of the first T20I match between India and South Africa in Dharamsala
Head to Head in T20Is -
Matches - 13
India won - 8
South Africa - 5
2 - India have lost both the T20I matches they played against South Africa at home back in 2015 and one of the losses came in Dharamsala.
11 - Quinton de Kock will become the 11th player to captain South Africa in the T20I format.
12 - Andile Phehlukwayo has taken 12 wickets at an average of 12.75 in the 5 T20I matches he played this year.
44 - Shikhar Dhawan needs 44 more runs to become the 4th Indian batsman after Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, and Rohit Sharma to score 7000 T20 runs.
100 - Kagiso Rabada needs 6 more wickets to achieve the milestone of 100 wickets in T20 cricket.
106 - Rohit Sharma played 106 runs impressive knock against South Africa in 2015's T20I match here in Dharamsala.
2500 - Rohit Sharma needs 78 more runs to become the first-ever batsman to score 2500 runs in international T20 matches.
