With an explosive 59* and a wicket, Hardik impressed on return to international cricket, while Jasprit Bumrah also became the second Indian to complete 100 T20I wickets, bundling out SA for 74 in a chase of 176 at Cuttack on Tuesday.
Former Indian cricketer Parthiv Patel highlighted Jasprit Bumrah's impact, Hardik Pandya's role and Abhishek Sharma's form ahead of the five-match T20I leg between India and South Africa starting from December 9.
First up, Bumrah stands in line to become India's second bowler after left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh to have a century of T20I wickets for India. In 80 T20Is, he has taken 99 scalps at an average of 18.11, with best figures of 3/7. At the top is Arshdeep (105 in 68 matches).
Bumrah made his international debut in early 2016 during India's white-ball tour of Australia. Before this, he had an outstanding domestic season, excelling for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and topping the bowling charts in the Vijay Hazare tournament. He was the highest wicket-taker in the T
India's home dominance received their second jolt in back-to-back years, as after New Zealand's whitewash, India continued their poor run against South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) nations as it suffered a 0-2 loss to South Africa, with their loss by 408 runs in Guwahati
The defeat has plenty of reasons one can pinpoint fingers on, be it the extreme pitches chosen by the home team, the failure of coaching staff to instil a proper Test-driven mindset and technique within players, the collective batting failure and excessive reliance on Indian pace spearhea
Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes believes India should play on the domestic surface to get back to what they have always been so strong at, playing on turning wickets.