In the absence of injured Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav recently led the young Indian team to a T20I series win over Australia at home.

Surya’s next challenge as a captain is the tour of South Africa, where the Men in Blue are due to play three T20Is, starting on December 10 in Durban.

There is a lot of chatter around South Africa’s fast and bouncy pitches but Suryakumar is not worried about it.

“I think the key to success on such wickets will be to be yourself. The boys have prepared well. We are coming from a good T20I series win and have played on all fast tracks and all batters have played on such wickets. They will enjoy playing here in South Africa,” Surya said in the pre-series press conference.

Suryakumar Yadav had attributed India’s 4-1 series win over Australia to "fearless" approach and he wants his troops to continue with the same brand of cricket in South Africa.

“The players put their hands up against Australia and came up with fearless cricket, and we need to play the same against South Africa. I just told them (players) to do exactly what they do in franchise cricket,” he said.

Since Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan are part of the T20I squad, there’s a lot of confusion about India’s first-choice openers.

“We have the combination in mind. We know who are going to open tomorrow, and perhaps, will take a final call after the practice session today. Yes, we have enough sixth bowler options in this side to bank upon,” the captain said.

Before the T20 World Cup 2024 in June, India have only six T20Is to try out players but Surya said it was not an issue as there will also be IPL 2024 in between.

“Yes there are limited T20Is but we will also have 14 league game in IPL [IPL 2024] as well. Players have a lot of game under their belt. So we don’t think there’ll be an issue”, Suryakumar said.

“Everyone knows their role really well, knows their responsibilities really well, how they play in different situations.”