India will face South Africa in the first T20I at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. (Screengrab)International cricket is returning to Kerala after a gap of three years.
The Indian cricket team was given a rousing welcome in Thiruvananthapuram by fans on Monday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a heartwarming video of the response Team India received after they arrived in the State capital.
A huge number of fans cheered the Indian cricket team at the airport, and they followed them to the team hotel, where they got a traditional welcome.
Hello Thiruvananthapuram 👋
Time for the #INDvSA T20I series. 👍#TeamIndia | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/qU5hGSR3Io
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 27, 2022
The Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram will host the first T20I of the three-match series against South Africa. The Greenfield Stadium has hosted two T20Is and one ODI so far.
India will be looking to round off their T20 World Cup preparation with a marked improvement in their death bowling besides providing crucial game time to its untested players in the series against South Africa.
The hosts will be without two of their key bowlers, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who have been rested ahead of the ICC event next month. World Cup-bound Deepak Hooda will end up missing all the six games before the mega event as he has been ruled out of the South Africa T20s with a back injury. Shreyas Iyer is expected to take Hooda’s place in the squad.
Mohammad Shami, who is one of the World Cup reserves, is yet to recover from COVID-19 and will be missing the three games against the Proteas after being unavailable the rubber against Australia.
As Rohit spoke about the importance of giving all the players game time ahead of the World Cup, R Ashwin could get a look in.