Five Indian players to watch out for ahead of T20I series vs South Africa

With IPL debutants Gujarat Titans crowned champions in front of a record crowd of 104859 fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 29 the cricketing action now shifts to Indias road to the Mens T20 World Cup in Australia to be held in OctoberNovember this yearThe first match of the series to be held on June 9 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium will act as a platform for the Indian team to chase a 13match winning streak in T20Is Currently India are level with Afghanistan and Romania for most consecutive wins in T20Is at 12India have opted to rest their main players Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah with KL Rahul leading the 18member side and Rishabh Pant serving as his deputy But with newbies and veteran players in the mix here are five Indian players to watch out for in the series against South AfricaHardik PandyaHardik Pandya dished out a fitting response to his critics when he delivered a highlyinfluential allround display in the IPL 2022 final against Rajasthan Royals taking 317 with the ball and making a patient 34 with the bat The Gujarat Titans skipper was surrounded with concerns about his fitness especially bowling with his rightarm paceBut Pandya successfully steered his side to their maiden IPL title in front of his home crowd in Ahmedabad He wrapped up the season with 487 runs in 15 matches at an average of 4427 with four halfcenturies apart from picking eight wickets and goes into the T20I series against South Africa oozing with confidence Theres no denying that the spotlight will be on Pandya and his allround skills in the fivematch seriesKL RahulKL Rahuls leadership together with his batting earned him great plaudits during Lucknow Super Giants campaign where they crashed out of eliminator in IPL 2022 Rahul the opener had a stellar season with the bat becoming the secondhighest rungetter in the tournament scoring 616 runs at an average of 5133 though a lot of debate has been on his strike rate of 13538India would be hoping that Rahul becomes a little bit more aggressive with the bat at the top apart from extending their 12match winning streak in the format against the ProteasDinesh KarthikDinesh Karthik did not just knock at the selection doors but slammed it wide open with scintillating consistent performances as a specialist finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022 Karthik who also won the IPLs Super Striker of the Season award with a jawdropping strikerate of 183 proved his finishing credentials once again making 242 runs at a strike rate of 220 in the death overs phaseWith the callup to the T20I squad against South Africa done Karthik would like to replicate his IPL 2022 performances in the Indian jersey and grab a spot in the flight to Mens T20 World Cup in Australia later in the yearUmran MalikThe Sunrisers Hyderabad pace machine from Jammu caught everyones attention with consistently clocking speeds in excess of 150 kmph every match Though Lockie Ferguson snatched the award for fastest ball of the tournament with a 1573 kmph thunderbolt Umran left Indian fans thrilled with his raw paceIn his first full IPL season Umran has scalped 22 wickets with his best performance of 525 against eventual champions Gujarat Titans Legends of the game have all backed Malik to be a future India player and it remains to be seen if he continues to keep the speed gun busy against South Africa with greater control on line and lengthArshdeep SinghArshdeep Singh has been another young pacer just like Malik who left many people excited in IPL 2022 The 23yearold had been the goto bowler for Punjab Kings in the death overs with his ability to nail the yorkers and targeting the block hole consistentlyAll of this has meant that Arshdeep finished the season with deathovers economy rate of 758 apart from taking 10 wickets with best bowling figures of 337 Arshdeep a member of Indias U19 World Cup winning squad in 2018 will be eager to carry his good form from IPL 2022 against South AfricaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever