South Africa captain Aiden Markram won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third and final T20I of the series against India at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on December 14. Markram made a total of three changes including two forced changes whereas Suryakumar Yadav chose to go into the encounter with the same team as the previous game.
Nandre Burger was handed his debut cap whereas Keshav Maharaj came back into the squad to replace Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen in the side. Coetzee and Jansen were unavailable for selection for the final T20I of the series. Also, Donovan Ferreira replaced Tristan Stubbs in the batting lineup.
“Fresh wicket, happy with how we chased the other night. There's room for improvement in all aspects. Opportunity tonight to fix that. It's big (to win a series against India). Great occasion, hopefully the boys can express themselves. We've got three changes. Kesh comes back, Nandre Burger gets his debut and Donovan Ferreira comes in for Stubbs,” Markram said after winning the toss.
Suryakumar was happy with the result of the toss as he said, “We wanted to put runs on the board and defend. Looks a good track, don't think it'll change much. That's the brand of play we want to play, guys want to be fearless. Lot of positives from the last game. Same playing XI.”
Despite criticism, Suryakumar chose not to include no.1 T20I spinner Ravi Bishnoi and top-order batter Shreyas Iyer in the side.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar
South Africa Playing XI: Reeza Hendricks, Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Lizaad Williams, Tabraiz Shamsi, Nandre Burger
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