Rohit Sharma says challenging for team to playing T20 cricket together after a long time

Indian Cricketer Rohit Sharma on Wednesday said that the upcoming series against South Africa would help prepare India for 2016 T20 World Cup. India and South Africa would play three T20s, five one-day internationals and four Tests during a series that will begin on October 02 and conclude on December 07. The Indian team has not played T20 cricket in almost an year, but Sharma said that the experience from Indian Premier League (IPL) would give the players an edge. India will host the ICC 2016 World Cup in March. The Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series will be India's toughest assignment yet post the 2015 World Cup campaign where they defied expectations to reach the semi-final stage. The two-month long series would be held in various Indian cities. Sharma said that the team's batting order has improved because of the recent international tours. South Africa team, which arrived in India last week, will reach Dharamsala later this evening. The two-month long series kicks off with T20 on October 02 in Dharamsala before the action moves to eastern cities of Cuttack and then Kolkata. The first three ODIs will be played at Kanpur, Indore and Rajkot on October 11, 14 and 18 respectively. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the T20 and ODI teams while Virat Kohli will be the captain of test team.