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What a time it is to be Venkatesh Iyer. While he hadn't grabbed too much of the limelight prior to IPL 2021, he impressed one and all with his batting ability in the UAE-leg of the competition. Iyer's success at the top of the order for the Men in Purple allowed them to turn a forgetful first half into a season where they finished as the runners-up. The fact that Iyer could bowl a few overs of seam did a world of good to his resume as it fast-tracked his selection into the Indian team ahead of some of the other batting talents.
Coincidentally, his contribution with the bat as well as his bowling display came at a time when India's preferred seam-bowling all-rounder in recent years, Hardik Pandya, was suffering both with form and fitness concerns. As a result, not only did Iyer get to make his T20I debut but it is now being learned that he will get the ODI cap as well in South Africa.
The same was hinted at by captain KL Rahul at a press conference prior to India's first game against South Africa.
"Seam-bowling all-rounders help us in balancing the team really well. Venkatesh did well for KKR in the IPL, did well in the NZ series and is really looking good now in the nets as well. So, we are pretty excited to see how he goes," Rahul stated.
The Men in Blue head into this series on the back of a Test series defeat to the Proteas. While India had a great chance of scripting history by winning their first-ever Test series in the rainbow country and had even taken a 1-0 lead, they lost the next two matches to lose the series 2-1.
Now the action shift towards the ODIs, the first two of which are set to be played at the Boland Park with the final one scheduled at the Newlands Cricket Ground.
India squad for three-match ODI series vs South Africa: KL Rahul (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, J Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Navdeep Saini (cover for Siraj).