Suryakumar Yadav wants Team India to play "fearless" cricket against South Africa

Durban [South Africa], December 9 (ANI): India's T20I skipper for the South Africa series, Suryakumar Yadav, feels confident in his team's chances in the three-match series against the Proteas, which begins on Sunday.
Suryakumar is confident that India's young team would adapt easily to South Africa's hard and bouncy pitches, and he lauded the team's work in winning the T20I series against Australia before travelling to the Rainbow Nation.
"I think the key to success on such wickets will be to be yourself. The boys have prepared well. We are coming from a good T20I series win and have played on all fast tracks and all batters have played on such wickets. They will enjoy playing here in South Africa," Suryakumar said in the pre-series press conference.
Suryakumar emphasised his desire for the team to maintain the "fearless" approach that gave them success in the home series, echoing what he said during the Australia series.
"The players put their hands up against Australia and came up with fearless cricket, and we need to play the same against South Africa. I just told them to do exactly what they do in franchise cricket," he said.
Suryakumar, who has liked his captaincy thus far, emphasised that the series was crucial for India because they only had six more T20Is before the ICC Men's T20 World Cup next year. However, the captain dismissed fears that the absence of matches would hamper India's preparations for the global event.
"I feel there are limited T20s going forward, before the T20 World Cup, but then we play 14 league games in the IPL as well," Suryakumar said.
"And players who have been playing in these T20 internationals... they've played a lot of games, and they have a lot of experience under their belt. So, we don't think there will be an issue or any problem in selecting the squad because everyone knows their roles really well and responsibilities really well," he added.
The skipper did not reveal any details about India's likely lineup for the series opener on Sunday, but he did say that the squad knew who will open the innings in Durban tomorrow.
"We have the combination in mind. We know who are going to open tomorrow, and perhaps, will take a final call after the practice session today," the skipper said.
India's squad for three T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar and Deepak Chahar. (ANI)