South Africa chose to bowl vs India
After Sunday’s series-opener was washed out in Durban without even the toss taking place, things looked up 48 hours later down the coast in Gqeberha. Light drizzle abated in time for the second match after the surface was under cover for most of the day and heavy cloud hung over St George’s Park. Aiden Markam, who won the toss, wanted his bowlers to get first use of conditions.
South Africa resisted the urge to give left-arm seamer Nandre Burger his first cap and stuck with players they have used before. Matthew Breetzke was confirmed to partner Reeza Hendricks at the top of the order, with Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Tristan Stubbs all in the line-up. There was no room for Donovan Ferreira but Marco Jansen and Andile Phehlulwayo were both included in an XI that included two allrounders but only one spinner. Tabraiz Shamsi was preferred over Keshav Maharaj for this match.
India opted for Shubman Gill over Ruturaj Gaikwad – who is out with an illness – at the top of the order but could not fit in legspinner Ravi Bishnoi or Deepak Chahar and chose Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar instead. Suryakumar Yadav, standing in as captain for this series, was happy to lose the toss and equally carefree about the make-up of his team. Instead of focus on next year’s T20 World Cup, he has “told the boys to enjoy themselves.”
South Africa: 1 Reeza Hendricks, 2 Matthew Breetzke, 3 Aiden Markam, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Phehlukwayo, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Lizaad Williams, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
India: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Mukesh Kumar