BCCI to announce India squad for South Africa series on eve of Indian T20 league 2022 final, Virat Kohli likely to be rested

If reports are to be believed former Indian captain Virat Kohli might be rested for the upcoming T20 series against South Africa and Ireland by BCCI. Also, it is rumored that the squad for the forthcoming five-match series will be announced on the eve of the Indian T20 League 2022 final.

The sectors of the national team will be looking to try out some of the top performers of the Indian T20 League. They are set to use the series against South Africa and Ireland as the testing ground for the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place later this year.

Some of the names that are reported to be at the top of the selectors’ list are Umran Malik and Prithvi Shaw. It is also believed that the duo might be a part of the playing eleven too. Another name in discussions is that of  Abhishek Sharma who could also make it to the squad. While the return of Hardik Pandya seems obvious given his performances in the 15^th edition of the tournament so far.

Former Indian selector MSK Prasad expressed his views on the available options for selection. To quote him from Sports Tiger – “These three (Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli) are indispensable fit. There is no way that you can leave any one of them for the World T20. But yes, if I look at numbers, I might just try someone like Shikhar Dhawan at the opening slot and check Rahul at no.4. He has a T20 hundred in Manchester some years back in middle-order, so why not. But yes, I want Virat to take a significant break and before the Asia Cup, he should be fresh, up and running.”

When asked the same question to Deep Dasgupta, he said – “In Tests or ODIs, we normally find players, check them out and accordingly assign roles to them. In T20, you need to do the reverse. You first decide roles and then fit in players. They can still play the trio as number 1,2 and 3 but there has to be specific role which they should be told long before the tournament.”