The tour is important for both sides as the India-South Africa rivalry in the sub-continent dates long back and is still prevailing. Out of the thirteen T-20 encounters between both the teams, India has the upper hand of 9-5. But the South Africa team can never be taken lightly as India has managed an only single win in a T-20 match against South Africa in India and that also came in the previous game only.
Talking a little more about the T20 stats-
1) 219/4 by South Africa in 2012 is the highest score by both the teams against each other and 92-all out in 2015 is the lowest score between both the teams.
2) 341 Runs scored by Indian-opener Rohit Sharma is the highest runs scored by a player in a series between both nations.
3) 2 Centuries have been scored in matches between India and South Africa- Both of them have been scored by Indian players- Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.
4) A total of 19 Half-Centuries have been scored between India and South Africa to date. 3 Half-Centuries by JP Duminy is the most for any player.
While India is playing with its core team, South Africa will miss the excellence of its regular captain Faf Duplessis. On the other hand, the opening combination of Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla will be missed as Hashim Amla is not available for the T20 matches. In the absence of Faf, Quinton de Kock will be leading the team for this tour.
South Africa has taken few debutants with them against India in the second T20 match as the luxury of experience in the side is missing. Temba Bahuma was the most promising debutant that day. He was taken into the side seeing his performance in the South African T20 league this year. The other debutant today could be George Linda, who can partner with Tabraiz Shamsi in the spin department. Other players in contention can be a pick between Junior Dala and Anrich Nortje in the pace department with Kagiso Rabada, who is the leader in the pace department for South Africa for some time now.
Both the team could not get the results they wanted in the 50-over World Cup 2019 in England this year, so they will definitely be eyeing the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2020 and this is the perfect way to start off the campaign for the T20 competition next year.