After a pulsating Test series, both India and South Africa are have geared up for the first ODI at Boland Park, Paarl. India captain Kl Rahul lost the toss on his ODI captaincy debut. Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma opted to bat first after winning the toss.
Rahul handed all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer his ODI debut. There was one notable omission in the first ODI as hard-hitting Suryakumar Yadav will be sitting on the sidelines.
“Venkatesh Iyer debuting, Shreyas Iyer to bat at four. Last couple of days and right after Tests there was a lot going on. Emotional for the team. Lot of us have debuted under Virat. Obviously he's still with us and integral part of the team. Just want to try out few things in terms of tactics and strategies. Personnel will not change much. Want to give them a good run. Experimentation doesn't mean we'll go in and start hitting from ball one,” Rahul said athte the coin toss.
Youngster Marco Jansen got rewarded for his performance in debut Test series as made it into the ODI team replacing Kagiso Rabada.
The Indian team will be eyeing revenge from the Test series loss, but can't make the mistake to underestimate the opposition. The match also marks the first time that Virat Kohli enters the field without the captaincy tag, on Saturday (January 15) he also relinquished the Test captaincy. Rohit Sharma remains a big absentee, he scored a hundred in the last series in the Rainbow Nation.
India Playing XI: KL Rahul (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Venkatesh Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
South Africa Playing XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma(c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi
