South Africa captain Aiden Markram won the toss and opted to field first in the second T20I of the three-T20I series at St George's Park, Gqeberha on December 12. Suryakumar Yadav made a few changes to the playing XI as few senior players returned to the side.
The newly crowned no.1 T20I bowler Ravi Bishnoi did not find a place. Bishnoi was India’s highest wicket-taker in the five-T20I series at home against Australia. Ruturaj Gaikwad was missing from the side as he is unwell, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed in a post on X. Also, Shreyas Iyer could not make the cut either. Jitesh Sharma was preferred over Ishan Kishan as the wicketkeeper-batter.
“Very happy to be here and happy to know there's some cricket around. We were confused what to do, but now we are very happy to bat first. It's an opportunity for everyone playing this game. World Cup is still 5-6 months away. Just enjoy yourself is the message to the team,” Suryakumar said at the coin toss.
Markram did not include left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj in the side. He went with only one speciallist spinner in the side.
“We are going to bowl first, been under the covers for most of the day, so I would assume it would move around a bit. Each game becomes important for us to fine tune things before the 2024 T20 WC, hopefully we can start well today. From my point of view it's about understanding if someone needs a rest. No debuts today,” Markram said after winning the toss.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar
South Africa Playing XI: Reeza Hendricks, Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Gerald Coetzee, Lizaad Williams, Tabraiz Shamsi
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