Axar Patel has been ruled out of the last two T20Is against South Africa due to illness. Shahbaz Ahmed has been named his replacement.
"He [Axar] is with the team in Lucknow [the venue for the fourth T20I], where he will be further medically assessed," the BCCI said in a statement. Axar had missed the third T20I in Dharamsala as well. Jasprit Bumrah, too, was unavailable for that game because of personal reasons. India replaced them with Kuldeep Yadav and Harshit Rana and went on to win by seven wickets.
Axar had mixed returns in the first two games. In Cuttack, he scored 23 off 21 and took 2 for 7 in a winning cause. In New Chandigarh, he picked up 1 for 27 from three overs and then, with India chasing 214, he was promoted to No. 3. He could score only a run-a-ball 21.
Shahbaz has played three ODIs and two T20Is for India, the last of which was the 2023 Asian Games final against Afghanistan in Hangzhou. He had lukewarm returns in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Playing for Bengal, he scored only 60 runs in five matches at a strike rate of 133.33 and took four wickets at an economy of 8.25.
After the fourth T20I in Lucknow, the teams will move to Ahmedabad for the finale. India currently lead the five-match series 2-1.
India's updated squad for last two T20Is
Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vice-capt), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed