Shreyas Iyer aims to surpass Rohit Sharma in elite list as India gear up for South Africa T20I series

India are gearing up to take on South Africa in a five-match T20I series at home starting from Thursday (June 09). The first T20I of the series will be played at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in New Delhi. The Indian players are back on national duty after the gruelling season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which concluded on May 29 last month. The players will be hoping to hit the ground running in the opening game on Thursday.

In the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma and the likes of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, KL Rahul will be leading the team. While a number of youngsters have made the cut in the squad after an impressive IPL campaign, the likes of Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik are also back.

Star batter Suryakumar Yadav will also miss the series due to an injury and in his absence, the onus will be on Shreyas Iyer to play a key role for the Men in Blue in the top four. Iyer is likely to bat at number three and will be hoping to continue his fine form with the bat in the five-match T20I series.

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Iyer will also be aiming to go past Indian skipper Rohit in an elite list of batters. Iyer is just 191 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in T2OIs for India and can become the 3rd fastest batter to achieve the feat after Virat Kohli (29) and KL Rahul (32). Iyer currently has 809 runs in 36 T20Is at an average of 36.77 and a brilliant strike rate of over 140.

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He has a chance to go past Rohit and become the 3rd fastest Indian batter to complete 1,000 runs in T20Is. Rohit had achieved the feat in 47 matches for the Men in Blue.

Fastest Indian batters to 1,000 runs in T20Is:

Virat Kohli - 29 matches

KL Rahul - 32 matches

Rohit Sharma - 47 matches

Iyer is coming off a decent season with the bat for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2022. Leading the side, Iyer scored 401 runs in 14 games at an average of 30.85 and a strike rate of over 134 last season. While it was a decent campaign for him on the personal front, his team struggled and failed to make it to the playoffs.

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Iyer will now return to action for Team India and will hope to make an impact as head coach Rahul Dravid and the team management will be keeping an eye on the performances of each player considering the T20 World Cup 2022 is now just a few months away.