The first T20I will be played in New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium which means that the players will have to adjust to the punishing heat in the nation’s capital. Temperatures in Delhi have been soaring for most days in the last two months and players may have to deal with playing in temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius even in the night.
Players from the camps have started training at the stadium which means that they would have got a taste of the heat already. South Africa spinner Tabraiz Shamsi even decided to give fans a rather sarcastic weather update.
“Just a cool 42 degrees outside ..not hot at all lol,” wrote Shamzi in a tweet.
Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel skipped India’s optional practice session at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi which marked the beginning of the team’s preparations ahead of the five-match T20I series against South Africa. BCCI sources confirmed that Hardik, Chahal and Harshal are likely to take part in the training session on Tuesday. The Gujarat Titans captain and the Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner were the only cricketers in the current India squad who played in the IPL 2022 final in Ahmedabad on May 29.
All eyes were on pace sensation Umran Malik, who earned his maiden India call-up after his exploits in the IPL. The right-arm pacer from Jammu, who regularly clocks 150 kmph, started with a few deliveries at half run up and then bowled at full tilt first to Shreyas Iyer and then Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda.
The most impressive among the Indian seamers, however, were Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh. Avesh nailed near-perfect yorkers to Ishan Kishan, Pant and Shreyas while Arshdeep was seen practicing a simulated yorker training under the watchful eyes of bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
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