The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today has announced that the veteran all-rounder Suresh Raina has been recalled to India’s squad for the 3 T20Is against South Africa. He had last participated in an international T20 game against England in February last year.
Additionally, Shikhar Dhawan has also been added to the squad after he was rested for the T20I series against Sri Lanka back home in December. Virat Kohli, who missed out on the Sri Lanka series, also returns to lead the side.
Raina was going through a lean patch in international cricket and as a result, he was dropped from the side. He then struggled with fitness also as he failed to pass the mandatory Yo-Yo test. Then he didn’t have a great run in the Ranji Trophy either as he suffered a string of low scores.
But he trained hard in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and the tides turned for the left-hander as he managed to pass the test. He was then retained by Chennai Super Kings before the auction for the IPL 2018. The 31-year-old scored recently a century in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while playing for Uttar Pradesh and showed signs of good form which inflicted his comeback into the team.
The Indian team has recently staged a wonderful victory in the final Test of the series and despite losing the series 2-1, showed the courage to guts it out against the strong South Africans in their own backyard. The 2 teams will now participate in an ODI series involving 6 games which will be followed by 3 T20Is.
India’s T20I squad for the South Africa T20Is
Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur.
Fixtures for the T20I series
February 18: 1st T20I, Johannesburg
February 21: 2nd T20I, Centurion
February 24: 3rd T20I, Cape Town
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