BCCI announce dates & venues for South Africa T20Is

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the dates and venues for the five-match T20I series between hosts India and South Africa.

The five-match rubber will take place between June 09-19. The series will get underway at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi before moving to Cuttack, Vizag, Rajkot and the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru for the remaining fixtures.

The BCCI confirmed the venues and dates for the rubber via an official statement from secretary Jay Shah on Saturday night.

The statement read, "The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced the venues for India's upcoming South Africa tour comprising 5 T20 Internationals in the month of June 2022."

South Africa were originally scheduled to tour India for three One-day Internationals in March 2020, but the rubber was eventually called off due to the global pandemic.

India toured the rainbow nation earlier this year and were beaten 1-2 and 0-3 in the Test and ODI series, respectively.

South Africa have thus far played a couple of bilateral T20I rubbers in India. While they won 2-0 in 2015, the visitors drew 1-1 during their previous trip in 2019.

With India set to tour Ireland and England for a whole host of white-ball rubbers and a one-off Test starting in late June, it is likely that the all-format players may not be available for the South African T20Is.

This will provide an ideal opportunity for fringe players to put their best case forward ahead of the all-important T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.

India has so far been unbeaten in their home season. The Rohit Sharma-led unit scripted back-to-back 3-0 victories over New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka, and they will look to make it 4-in-4 when the Proteas come calling in June.