Dale Steyn has fully recovered from a shoulder injury and recently featured for the Melbourne Stars in Australia's domestic Big Bash league.
South Africa will be without experienced pace bowler Dale Steyn for Thursday's Cricket World Cup opener against England at The Oval after failing to shake off a recurring shoulder problem.
India will be looking to round off their T20 World Cup preparation with a marked improvement in their death bowling besides providing crucial game time to its untested players in the three-match series against South Africa.
CSK will be eliminated if they lose to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
Punjab Kings are placed eighth while Chennai Super Kings occupy the penultimate slot in the 10-team IPL points table.
South Africa have slipped to number six in the world, behind fifth-placed Sri Lanka, and have a host of questions to answer, not least around a brittle top six and the balance of the side.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings would need to lift themselves after a nightmarish start to the season as they target their first win of IPL 2022 when they take on a high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka could manage only 137 all out in a chase that always looked beyond them to succumb to an eighth successive limited-overs loss
India will need another near perfect game to take the five-match series into the decider.
While the batting looks in perfect shape, India's new-look pace department needs to come up with something special against the Proteas in Cuttack on Sunday.
Uncapped all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been named in the South Africa's squad as a replacement for injured Dale Steyn for the remaining Tests of the three-match series against Australia. The 33-year-old ruled out of the tour after fracturing his right shoulder during Australia's first innings of the opening Test, which the Proteas went on to win by massive 177 runs at the WACA Ground in Perth.
Delhi Capitals will aim to solve their opening conundrum quickly and boost their chances of making it to the IPL play-offs when they take on a lacklustre Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.
Chennai Super Kings's fragile bowling vis-a-vis Royal Challengers Bengaluru's struggling batting line-up put them on even keel when they face-off in an important mid-table clash of the IPL match in Pune on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians will be aiming to register their first win of IPL 2022 and keep their slim chances alive when they face Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
It will be a test of wits between two new captains in Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya when defending champions Chennai Super Kings clash with debutants Gujarat Titans in the IPL match in Pune on Sunday.
It may be an inconsequential game on paper but Indian bowlers await another tough test against South Africa ahead of the T20 World Cup when the two teams meet in the final game of the three-match series in Indore on Tuesday.
While Robin Uthappa had scored a fifty in one of the games, the likes of Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu have failed to capitalise on their starts.
Rajneesh Gupta has all the numbers about how each player from the Indian and South Africa teams fared in T20 Internationals.
Led by Quinton de Kock, South Africa's 44 cricketers, who are part of a men's high performance squad, have returned to training amid the COVID-19 pandemic after getting approval from the country's sports ministry. South Africa has reported more than 1,38,000 COVID-19 cases with over 2,400 deaths.
Chennai Super Kings have so far failed to display the stuff that won them the IPL last season, and new skipper Ravindra Jadeja must seek improvement on multiple fronts against Punjab Kings when they meet at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
The Proteas have named five new players in the squad for the series starting next month.
Jos Buttler would be eagerly waiting to pounce on an inexperienced Chennai Super Kings attack in order to clinch a play-offs berth for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2022 match on Friday.
Gujarat Titans are currently at the top of the IPL table with 18 points from 12 games and a win on Sunday will more or less secure them a top-2 finish. That would mean an extra chance of making it to the final.
Smarting from opening game losses, a good batting display will be high on the agenda for South Africa and defending champions West Indies when the two teams lock horns in a Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Tuesday.
Also included is fast bowler Anrich Nortje, but in-form opening batsman Temba Bavuma will have to prove his fitness after injuring his hamstring against England on Sunday.
SunRisers Hyderabad has the biggest purse while Kolkata Knight Riders has the slimmest purse.
Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj have been added to the squad as injury replacements but they do not figure in the World Cup-bound squad, as of now.
A lot of grey areas are yet to be addressed, but a young Indian team, with an admirable collective temperament, will start as favourites in the series-deciding fifth T20 International against South Africa, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.
IMAGES from the 4th T20I between India and South Africa played in Rajkot on Friday.
While Ishan Kishan has done well so far, Ruturaj Gaikwad (23, 1) has pulled the team down with questions being raised over his technique against quality pacers and his ability to force the pace early on.
Comeback man Heinrich Klaasen followed Rassie Van der Dussen's suit in turning out to be an unlikely hero with a career-best 81 as South Africa once again outwitted India by four wickets on a tricky pitch to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series.
IMAGES from the 1st T20I played between India and South Africa in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Indian team's strategy is expected to undergo paradigm shift with some players getting a subtle yet stern message to lift their games as they face an embarrassing possibility of a clean sweep against South Africa in the third ODI, in Cape Town on Sunday.
South Africa were given a glimpse of what they have been missing as De Villiers flayed Bangladesh's attack with stunning ease on his way to a career-best one-day international score on Wednesday.
KL Rahul will have to show drastically improved leadership acumen when he leads India against a buoyant South African side in the second ODI on Thursday.
In other big movements, Punjab Kings have released their last edition's captain Mayank Agarwal, while West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Fulfilling the quota requirements while fielding a competitive team has long been a sensitive issue but after a poor 2019, returning to winning ways looks to be the immediate priority of the four selectors, two of whom are black.
Images from the IPL 2022 match between Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, on Sunday.
The fast bowler has spent more than a month on the sidelines and was ruled out on Tuesday, though South Africa hope he will be fit to face India on June 5.
Whether he is batting in the middle or fielding at the boundary line, Virat Kohli's every move will be tracked, though some of that attention will now be on skipper K L Rahul.
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