Dating back to last year’s T20 World Cup, South Africa have developed a knack of relying less on luck (or lack thereof) and trusting their ability at the death. Their experienced batters are coming into their own but there are still questions about the make-up of the team that they will want to answer. Their all-round options on this tour are both seam bowlers, which creates more room for specialist spinners. We can expect this combination to change as the series progresses but perhaps not until the direction the contest takes is clear.
South Africa are 1-0 up but were pushed to their limits in the first match. How much further can they go? India will want to see.
Form guide
(Last five completed matches, most recent first)
India LWWWW
South Africa WWWWW
We may have to wait a little longer to see Umran Malik or Arshdeep Singh with India likely to go in with an unchanged XI.
India: (possible) 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
South Africa: (possible) 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 David Miller, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Dwaine Pretorius, 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Lungi Ngidi/Keshav Maharaj, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
There are two things that India does really well: one is cricket and the other one is hospitality. It’s been really awesome being here.
Wayne Parnell is enjoying his first time in Cuttack
“We discussed after the game what went wrong but it was just the first match of the series. Everyone is coming from the IPL and almost everyone who is in the team had a good IPL. So everyone knows what needs to be done in tomorrow’s match and things we can improve upon. So there wasn’t a big discussion because anyone can have an off day. As a bowling unit, we had an off day but that’s okay. We just want to come back [stronger] in the next match.”
Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels India need not worry despite losing the first T20I