5 Questions the Indian Cricket team found answers to during the SA T20I series

Even before a ball had been bowled, the T20I assignment against South Africa seemed massively significant for the Indian cricket team. Not just because they wanted to consign the Proteas to their first white-ball series defeat in the country since 2011, but also because this was as elaborate a dress rehearsal for the T20 World Cup as any.

The Indian cricket team weren’t able to put out their first-choice eleven. However, with several IPL performers in the mix and fringe players longing to make their mark, their squad wore a solid look. It didn’t materialize that way in the opening couple of games, with South Africa trampling them at Cuttack and Delhi.

The Indian cricket team, though, turned things around remarkably at Rajkot and Vishakhapatnam. Unfortunately, rain interrupted the decider at Bengaluru, meaning that both teams had to share the spoils.

From an Indian cricket team perspective, however, the series perhaps served its purpose. Not because they went toe-to-toe against a powerful South African unit, but also because they were able to answer many questions that might’ve caused them a furrowed brow prior to the series.

Without further ado, here is a look at the five questions that the Indian cricket team seem to have definitively answered.

#5 Avesh Khan is ready for the T20 World Cup; Ruturaj Gaikwad not there yet

Avesh Khan and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been consistent performers in the domestic circuit and the IPL in recent times. Thus, when Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were rested for this series, many were intrigued to see how Avesh and Gaikwad would fare.

According to the numbers, Avesh picked up only 4 wickets. The other Indian cricket team pacers – the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel, accounted for six and seven batters, respectively. The impressive bit, though, was that Avesh, despite a couple of wayward overs, always found a way to come back into the game.

Moreover, on pitches that might aid his tendency to bowl hard lengths, he could be a handful. At Rajkot, the surface suited his style of bowling and he returned with a four-wicket haul. He also bowled relatively tidily at the death and if India were to look in his direction for the T20 World Cup, it seems that he might be ready to take up the challenge.

The same, however, can’t be said about Gaikwad. He produced a stunning blitz at Vishakhapatnam but flattered to deceive otherwise. Apart from his low returns, he looked twitchier than usual – almost as if he was feeling the pinch of playing international cricket and was too eager to show he belonged. It led to a few soft dismissals and shots that he would ordinarily not play.

Nevertheless, this was a series that illustrated how good he can be when on song. But a rubber that also showed he has to traverse some more miles before being looked upon as a regular in T20I cricket.

#4 Bhuvneshwar Kumar continues aging like fine wine

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For much of IPL 2020 and 2021, the narrative around Bhuvneshwar Kumar was his injury record and proclivity to miss key games. In the recent past, he has put a few of those injury concerns to bed, and if the series against South Africa was any indicator, it seems that he is back to his best.

When Bhuvneshwar gets the ball to move, he adds another dimension to an already multi-faceted Indian cricket team bowling attack. In the powerplay this series, he boasted an economy rate of around 3.6 and barely let the batters get into a rhythm. He extracted movement off almost every surface and hoodwinked batters with his clever variations.

In essence, this was the sort of performance the Indian cricket team faithful had gotten used to, prior to the injury-laden seasons of 2020 and 2021. This was as much a return to the mean as anything else and that, as people would testify, makes him indispensable to the Indian cricket team’s T20 World Cup plans.

#3 Ishan Kishan throws up an interesting top-order debate for the Indian cricket team

Ishan Kishan was superb against South Africa

Over the past couple of years, KL Rahul, Kohli and Rohit have been the Indian cricket team’s de-facto top three. Each has the numbers to back it up and the trio’s pedigree is unrivalled – not just in India but across the globe. However, with the emergence of Ishan Kishan and his brand of cricket, the Indian cricket team might have to make some tough calls.

Throughout the South Africa series, Kishan portrayed that he can blaze away at the top. His run-scoring in the powerplay might not have always been brisk, but his ability to tear apart spin might just place him ahead of the aforementioned troika. Additionally, Kishan was fearless and didn’t worry about his individual score. He threw caution to the wind when it was required, and adhered to the new-look ultra-aggressive philosophy the Indian cricket team want to adopt.

As things stand, for some reason or the other, it might not be enough to usurp the incumbent top three. But Kishan has certainly thrown up a rather intriguing top-order debate – one whose outcome could decide how India fares at the T20 World Cup.

#2 Hardik Pandya has not missed a beat in international cricket

At the 2021 T20 World Cup, there were question marks over the value Hardik Pandya would add to the Indian cricket team. Back then, he wasn’t bowling and was featuring as a specialist batter. The tournament didn’t quite go as per plan, meaning that Hardik was, to an extent, scapegoated and was even dubbed not good enough.

But as it often happens with him, he found a way to mount a comeback. He spent months rehabilitating and led the Gujarat Titans to an unprecedented IPL triumph in their debut campaign. The next step then was seeing if he could replicate those displays for the Indian cricket team. And so far, it feels that he can.

He wasn’t very impressive when bowling. He conceded 61 runs in the five overs he bowled but the Indian cricket team had an option of turning to him when the going got tough. He will most likely be used as a sixth-bowler at the T20 World Cup. From that standpoint, the fact that he can bowl if required seems adequate enough.

With the bat, he was exceptional. He read game situations, took the innings deep and then finished it with a flourish. Two of his three thirty-plus knocks came in winning causes and alongside Dinesh Karthik (more on him later), he formed a solid middle order. Add Ravindra Jadeja to that mix, and India seem to have their death-batting and all-round ability base very well covered.

#1 Dinesh Karthik can still finish like he used to

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Way back in 2006, Karthik won the Player of the Match award for his calm and unbeaten 31-run knock against South Africa. That, by the way, was the Indian cricket team’s inaugural T20I. Against that very opposition at Rajkot, Karthik bagged only his third Player of the Match award.

Not only does that highlight how his career has often resembled running from post to pillar without a substantial patch of prolonged performance, it also illustrates that the old warhorse has plenty left in the tank.

Prima facie, it might seem a little tough to include Karthik in India’s first-choice eleven. But he does what no other batter in the country (who has not retired from international cricket) does. He walks into hopeless situations and bends them to his liking. The death overs have become his natural habitat and not many in the world are capable of making as much of an impact in as little time as Karthik.

With these outings, he has piled further pressure on Rishabh Pant. While the Delhi Capitals skipper’s place might be safe for now, it might not be long before the Indian cricket team contemplates selecting only one of them in the playing eleven.

At the moment, it seems that only four of Karthik, Kishan, Kohli, Pant, Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav can feature in an eleven at any given point in time. That it has come to this shows how far Karthik has come. From commentating on India’s World Test Championship final to perhaps being the lynchpin for their upcoming T20 World Cup campaign.