India seamer Jasprit Bumrah will have the chance of entering an elite club of bowlers in the upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa. The 31-year-old currently has 99 wickets under his name from 80 matches in the shortest format. He will have a chance of becoming just the second Indian to cross the 100-wicket mark after Arshdeep Singh, who currently as 105 scalps under his belt.
Bumrah's exclusion for ODI series
Notably, Bumrah was excluded from India's squad for the ODI series against South Africa after featuring in both the games in the Test assignment. He racked up a total of eight scalps in two games, including a five-wicket haul. He was most likely dropped for the one-day series in order for his workload to be managed properly.
If Bumrah does go on to pick up his 100th wicket in T20Is, then he will become the first-ever Indian to clinch over 100 scalps in all the three formats. He currently has 234 wickets in Tests and 149 wickets in ODIs and has been a vital bowler for the Men in Blue across all formats for several years now. He will also become just the fifth bowler overall to achieve the rare feat. The likes of Tim Southee, Shakib Al Hasan, Shahid Afridi and Lasith Malinga are the only players to take over 100 wickets in the three formats.
T20I series set to begin in Cuttack
Meanwhile, India's T20I series against South Africa will begin from December 9 with the first match set to take place at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack. The Proteas have a perfect record at the venue so far and have won both the T20Is that they have played there. It remains to be seen if they will be able to maintain that record in the upcoming match. With the 2026 T20 World Cup on the horizon, this assignment will be highly important for both the teams.
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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.