India vs South Africa 2019: 3 Indian players who must perform in the T20I series

India will host South Africa in the first T20I of the three-match series at the HPCA stadium Dharamsala. Both the teams possess a blend of very experienced players and fresh faces, who will all be eager to make a mark.

The Men in Blue won their most recent T20 series quite convincingly against the two-time World Champions West Indies in the Caribbean Islands as they whitewashed the hosts 3-0. However, despite a good showing, there are still some question marks over the form and presence of a few players in the team and with a whole lot of youngsters waiting in the wings for a chance in the side, the pressure will be on certain players to make a mark.

In light of upcoming India vs South Africa T20I series, let's have a look at four players who will need to justify their selection in the side.

---

#3 Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant made his debut in in 2017 against England. In just three years of cricket at the highest level, Pant has become a very familiar name in the Indian team. He is now representing the country in all the formats of the game.

In Test cricket, Pant has made his mark with a century each in England and Australia. But his LOI career seems to be going wayward at the moment. He seems to be struggling to find his feet and has more than often thrown his wicket away.

In the recent tour of West Indies, MS Dhoni made himself unavailable which saw Rishabh Pant slot into the wicket-keeper's role in all three formats. This was a golden opportunity to seal his place in the middle order in shorter formats but he failed to impress. He averaged 34.5, 10 and 19.33 in the T20, ODI and Test series of the Caribbean tour.

The 21-year-old played a good inning of 65* in his last T20I against West Indies but in the previous matches, he threw away his wickets very cheaply. Given his credentials in the shortest format, Pant will be keen on putting up a couple of good performances.

Also see – World Test Championship Schedule

#2 Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey has been around the Indian team for five years now but has been able to cement his place in the team. A middle-order batsman who has all the strokes in his batting style, Pandey will be keen on doing well in this series, with a place in the T20 World Cup squad up for grabs.

Pandey was part of the T20 series winning team in West Indies but his performance was very disappointing in the three matches. He had some opportunities to play some crucial knocks and finish the game for his team but he did not do too well as he finished with just 27 runs from three matches.

From 31 T20I matches, Pandey has amassed 565 runs at a strike rate of 121.51 and with his spot in the playing XIs for the three matches yet again in doubt, he will need to make the most of the opportunities handed out to him.

#1 Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan

If there is anyone in the Team India who is desperate for a good show in the upcoming T20 series against South Africa, that could be Shikhar Dhawan. His stats in T20I cricket in recent time has not been that great and has struggled to find form in the last few series.

Dhawan has not had the greatest of runs in the ongoing year, beginning with a thumb injury that ruled him out of the 2019 World Cup. Dhawan returned to the fold as part of the series against West Indies but look far from being comfortable at the top of the order as he scored just 27 runs from three matches.

Given the fact that KL Rahul will be looking on from the benches in the hope of landing the opener's spot in the upcoming games, Dhawan will certainly need to fire in order to ensure that he keeps the spot.

Rahul averages 42.81 in the T20 format at a strike rate of 148.11 and his credentials in this format certainly look good for him to feature in the side in the near future. This series could be the last opportunity for Dhawan as India's first-choice opener in T20 cricket since a failure in the series may allow Rahul to cement his spot in the playing XI ahead of the southpaw.