Looking to extend their winning streak, India take on South Africa as Temba Bavuma-led side won the toss and opted to bowl first in their first T20I of the five match series at Arun Jaitley stadium, New Delhi, on Thursday (June 9).
ndia have fielded three pacers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel, while Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal are the two spinners in the playing eleven. Veteran Dinesh Karthik has also been included in the XI. For South Africa, Aiden Markram missed out after testing positive for COVID-19.
"I think it is a good surface and don't mind batting first. But if I had won the toss I would have bowled first. It is one of the proudest moment in my cricketing career so far. Because a Delhi boy getting that (captaincy) honour at Delhi is a huge thing for me. Thanks to everyone for giving me this opportunity. We know our XI but at the same time we are giving different roles to players and see how they cope with that going forward," India captain Rishabh Pant said before the match.
"We are going to have a bowl first. We played a practice game here a couple of days ago, so that the wicket got better to bat on. It was a bit slow and stoppy at the beginning, hopefully we can exploit that and restrict them to a decent score and chase it down. Aiden was not available for selection as he tested positive for Covid, Stubbs comes and it is a debut for him. We have two all rounders; Dwaine and Parnell also come into the fold. It is an important series as we haven't been together as a group since the World Cup, it is a preparation for the World Cup coming up in Australia," Protea skipper Temba Bavuma said after winning the toss.
Pitch and Conditions
"The last international game played here was way back in 2019, but in 2021 four IPL games were played here and all were high scoring, 195 was the average score then. The dimensions are small here; only 61 meters on the western side and 63 on the eastern, straight down is 74. It looks like it has a bit of grass which is dry. It is a little patchy but the surface itself is quite firm. You can see the cracks here which might help the spinners but still seems a high scoring match. Dew is not a factor," Deep Dasgupta analyses the pitch.
India's Playing XI: Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan.
South Africa Playing XI: Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.
