South Africa captain Aiden Markram acknowledged the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the upcoming five-match T20I series against India and breathed a sigh of relief. He further remarked that the team are looking forward to play an "exciting" brand of cricket in the T20Is and entertain the crowd watching.
"It's great that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are not part of the T20I side, but still it's a great Indian team. No extra plans, I guess. It's T20 cricket, it's an entertaining format and that's the brand we want to play. We want guys to free themselves up, enjoy the game, let their best skills be on show," Markram said in the pre-match press-conference.
The Proteas skipper further said that they are yet to decide on the final playing XI that will feature against India in the first T20I and will need to do a few more discussions about it with the team management.
"Tomorrow is the start of a new series. We haven't selected the final XI just yet, we need a few more discussions and then we'll come to that," Markram stated.
Markram's praise for Abhishek
Markram also showered praise on India's Abhishek Sharma ahead of the T20I series. The two had shared the dressing room during their time with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL and Markram went on to put a premium on the young batter's wicket.
"I've played with Abhi before at Sunrisers, a great guy and bats really well, so no doubt it's a big wicket for us. Whoever takes the new ball, that's a challenge to hopefully get him early. He is a match-winner and it's an important wicket for us," Markram further said.
South Africa's record in Cuttack
Meanwhile, South Africa have a phenomenal record at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack and have won the two T20Is that they have played at the venue so far. It remains to be seen if they will be able to maintain this record in the upcoming encounter against India.
India's squad for South Africa T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar.
South Africa's squad for India T20Is: Aiden Markram (C), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, George Linde, Lutho Sipamla, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjeand Tristan Stubbs.