Tosses South Africa opt to bat vs India
There were surprises galore as the coin went up between India and South Africa in Ahmedabad. All of it possibly points to a dry surface as Aiden Markram elected to bat first. Suryakumar Yadav said he would have done the same, but he was happy to be able to use the surface adjacent to the one they played Netherlands on.
Markram said the black-soil pitch – same as the last match – was dryer compared to the usual Ahmedabad surfaces, which should deny it the early tackiness that sides bowling first can use.
There were no surprises in South Africa’s choice of players. All four first-choice players – Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller – came back after they were rested last game. Kagiso Rabada kept his place ahead of Anrich Nortje who did take two wickets in his only match.
India pulled off another surprise, which might point to a surface that calls for early spin. They left out their vice-captain, left-arm spinner and spin disruptor with the bat, Axar Patel, for Washington Sundar. Suryakumar said that was a “tactical” decision which points to the possible early use of offspin against Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton even though India’s two quicks and Varun Chakravarthy have a good record against South Africa’s top order.
India 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt.), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
South Africa 1 Aiden Markram (capt.), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ryan Rickelton, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi.
