India VS South Africa T20I: Three insights from the first T20I between the two teams

In response, India chased down the meager total with 20 balls to spare, taking a deserved 1-0 series lead against a side that had troubled them at home in the shortest format of the game. 

Despite the T20 World Cup being exceptionally close now, there is still plenty for the Indian team to figure out, but the good news is that there are, at least for now, more positives than negatives for the team management to contend with.

With that in mind, here are three key takeaways from the Trivandrum T20I: 

Suryakumar remains a key batsman – It is safe to say that the Indian cricket team has a star-studded batting line-up on paper. KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel are a formidable batting unit to possess. However, only one man seems to be the most likely to trouble opposition in its current form: Suryakumar Yadav. 

The man nicknamed SKY has been India's star performer in the middle order even as Rahul, Rohit, and Kohli have struggled for consistency – although their recent form has been more positive than negative. Still, at Trivandrum, Suryakumar Yadav proved yet again why he's the key man. 

He accelerated the scoring when the Indian team was two wickets down, and the wicket was still assisting the bowlers. His unbeaten half-century, scoring a strike rate above 150, was why India won the game as comfortably as they did. 

Bowling comes to the party – Recent times have seen a lot of question marks over the bowling unit, but in Trivandrum, it was the bowlers who deserved the most praise. Deepak Chahar set the tone with quality swing bowling, whereas Arshdeep Singh did the most damage. Harshal Patel, R Ashwin, and Axar Patel also chipped in well. 

The bowling unit benefited greatly due to favourable swing bowling conditions. But they made the most out of the situations when they could – and did their prospects of staking a claim in the team no harm. 

South Africa is fallible, after all – Ahead of the series, there was a lot of talk about South Africa's unbeaten T20I series streak in India and the quality they possess in all departments. However, if the Trivandrum game showed anything, it's that even the mighty Proteas are not unbeatable. 

The poor form of skipper Temba Bavuma is a concern, whereas the rest of the middle order didn't fare much better. It is telling that their most significant contributor with the bat was left-arm orthodox bowler Keshav Maharaj – he's no mug with the bat. Indeed, he won't be able to come up with such performances consistently. The Proteas, as it turns out, have issues to fix. And that works well for India.