South African cricket team arrives in India for Gandhi-Mandela series

New Delhi: A formidable South African cricket team arrived in India on Sunday for a two-and-a-half month long series to begin on October 2 with the first T20 International (T20I) against India at Dharamsala. Big Proteas names like AB de Villiers (ODI captain), Hashim Amla (Test skipper), Faf du Plessis (T20 captain) touched Delhi from Johannesburg in the afternoon on Sunday. The players though did not speak to the media on arrival and were quickly whisked away by the security personnel from Delhi Police along with the staff of the five-star facility where the team has been put up.The South African side will play three T20Is, five One-day Internationals (ODIs) and four Tests against India during their 72-day long tour.The visitors will also play a warm-up T20 against Indian President’s XI on Tuesday and a two-day game in Mumbai on October 30-31 before the Test series. The visitors will head for Dharamsala, the venue for the first T20 after playing their practice game against India A at the Airforce ground in Palam. Meanwhile, all-rounder Albie Morkel has been recalled in the South African T20 International (T20I) side as pacer David Wiese is out of the tour with a hand fracture. Wiese suffered the injury to his right hand when trying to take a catch off his own bowling during a warm-up match ahead of the Africa T20 Cup. He is required a surgery and it will keep him out of the cricket field for at least six weeks. This injury has opened the door for Albie, who last played for South Africa 18 months back. Meanwhile, middle order batsman Rilee Rossouw has also been ruled out of the entire limited-overs leg of the tour. He continues his recovery from a stress fracture to his foot which he sustained against New Zealand.