Shikhar Dhawan likely to lead team India in T20 series against South Africa

After the completion of the Indian Premier League 2022, The Indian Team has a very tight schedule starting from the South Africa series in June.

Considering the workload, the senior players of all-format such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul will be on break for at least three weeks.

“All the senior India players will get at least three and half weeks of complete rest. Rohit, Virat, KL, Rishabh, and Jasprit will all directly go to England for the ‘fifth Test’ following the white-ball series. We need all our key players to remain fresh for the England series,” a senior BCCI source told PTI

So, in the absence of current Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Vice-captain KL Rahul, the selectors might announce Shikhar Dhawan as the captain of the Indian side for the 5-match T-20 series against the South Africa and 2 match T 20 series versus Ireland.

The veteran Dhawan comes with a lot of experience in playing international cricket. He also had captained the Indian side against Sri Lanka last year.

On the other hand, the selectors are also impressed with Hardik Pandya’s captaincy skills he has shown in the ongoing IPL. His team Gujarat Titans is a current table topper with 9 wins in 12 matches and was the first team to qualify for the playoffs.

On captaincy contender, the source said: “The selectors have a couple of choices. Shikhar Dhawan, as has already captained India in absence of Virat, Rohit Sharma, and Rahul during last year’s Sri Lanka series. But Hardik Pandya’s impressive captaincy for Gujarat Titans hasn’t gone unnoticed. So it will be a close call.”

The squad for the South Africa series will likely to be announced on May 22. The T-20 battle against South Africa will begin from June 09, 2022. While the 2 match series against Ireland will begin from June 26, 2022.