India vs. South Africa, 1st T20: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info, Preview

India and South Africa begin their three-match Twenty20 series in Dharamsala, India, on Friday. For both teams, this is an opportunity to test their strength ahead of next year’s ICC World T20.

Date: Friday, October 2

Start time: 7 p.m. local time; 2:30 p.m. BST

Venue: Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharmasala, India

Live stream and TV info: Star Sports (India and Bangladesh), SuperSport (South Africa), PTV Sports (Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates)

Weather: The weather will be pleasant, according to AccuWeather.com, with highs of 28 degrees Celsius, which will dip to around 13 degrees Celsius in the evening.

Overview

It’s a pity there is so little context to this T20 series. If there was qualification at stake for next year’s ICC World T20, for example, South Africa might have sent a full-strength side and the series might have actually counted for something.

Instead, the visitors have opted for a number of second-stringers in their bowling lineup. In truth, it’s not such a bad idea. South Africa need to test their depth ahead of next year’s ICC World T20, and since India will be hosting the tournament, there is no better time to see how some of their back-up bowlers fare.

Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott, Chris Morris and even Eddie Leie will have an opportunity to stake their claims. The batsmen are more familiar, but it would be interesting to see what the Proteas do with their batting order.

Quinton de Kock is back in the T20 side after being dropped against New Zealand and has usually opened alongside Hashim Amla, but there is a caveat. AB de Villiers opened during the warm-up match and South Africa have previously said they want their best batsman to face as many balls as possible.

If De Villiers is promoted up the order in an experiment, it would be interesting to see whether Amla retains his place and moves down to three. That Amla is talented there is no doubt, but perhaps South Africa are considering him as more of an anchor at three—as they do in Tests.

India, meanwhile, have opted for a more familiar side. They are a formidable team on home soil, and despite a blip against Bangladesh recently, they should still be favourites to win the series, especially considering the weakened South African bowling lineup.

Overall, it should be a decent series. The bowlers of both teams are in for a tough ride considering how good both batting lineups are.

Key Players

India

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is an incredibly useful bowler, even on surfaces that do not offer him much assistance. Against South Africa’s formidable batsmen, his ability to swing the ball will come in very handy.

South Africa

As has already been mentioned, AB de Villiers is the best batsman in South Africa’s lineup by a long way. Incredibly, he has only scored five T20 half-centuries in 61 T20 outings and averages under 23.00. However, he still has the ability to take the game away from the opposition single-handedly.

Squads

India

Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma,Sreenath Aravind, Stuart Binny, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Axar Patel, Suresh Raina, Mohit Sharma and MS Dhoni.

South Africa

Faf du Plessis, Khayelihle Zondo, Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Marchant de Lange, AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Imran Tahir, Eddie Leie, David Miller, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada and Albie Morkel.