1 in over 1 million! India lose 20th consecutive toss in ODIs, KL Rahul says 'I've been practising, but clearly it's not working'

Win or lose the match, India are on a toss-loosing spree since ODI World Cup 2023 final in Ahmedabad against Australia. On December 3, India lost their 20th consecutive toss in ODIs. It does not matter whether the captain flipping the coin or taking the call is Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill or KL Rahul, the toss hasn’t gone in India’s favour irrespective of game’s result.

The probability of losing a toss for 20 times on the trot is 0.00000095, one in over a million, 1,048,576 to exact.

Rahul was disappointed to lose the toss again as stand-in skipper.

“Honestly, that's the most pressure I've had because we haven't won a toss in a long time. I've been practising, but clearly it's not working,” Rahul told former India head coach Ravi Shastri after losing the toss to South Africa’s Temba Bavuma.

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After Bavuma opted to bowl at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur, and made three changes to the side, Rahul opted not to disturb the winning combination. He talked about the dew factor coming into play and discussions taking place around it.

“A lot of positives from the last game, so just trying to continue that. And, come out here, play hard cricket again. They pushed us last game as well. We know what to expect. The boys are looking in good shape. And I'm excited about this game. Before the series as well, we spoke about it (dew). This is a time in India where there is a lot of dew. We're expecting dew in every place that we play. So, the bowlers have spoken about it. A few tactics and a few things that we've spoken about, which I think we did really well in the last game. So, that'll give our bowling team a lot of confidence,” he added.

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India vs South Africa 2nd ODI Playing XIs -

South Africa: Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Matthew Breetzke, Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul(c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna.