🏏India vs South Africa 1st T20 : GIS Tiruvanathapuram. 🏏

🏏India vs South Africa 1st T20 : GIS Tiruvanathapuram. 🏏

It is a game between two top ranking teams, that makes this series more interesting!

Team India under the leadership of Rohit Sharma recently defeated Australia by a margin of 2-1. Australia who are the current World Champions were 1-0 up in the series, but India turned the odds in their favor as they outplayed the Aussies in all the departments and ended up winning the series.

The men in blue will now play against South Africa in a three-match T20I series. This is India's final chance to properly analyze their preparations and put their plans into place before the all-important T20I World Cup that is scheduled to start on October 16, 2022.

India have had Virat Kohli make an appreciable return to the top of the order, even if his strike rate has some room for improvement; the race for the third pacer option has perhaps narrowed down to Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh, with both having a chance to impress in the South Africa fixtures, while the team management's preference of Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant is also starting to take shape.

For South Africa, life in the T20I lane has been refreshingly good in the last 12 months - winning 13 of their 18 T20Is.

Since sharing the honours in the five games with India in June, South Africa went on to win a series in England and against Ireland, finding consistent top-order riches along the way.

The dilemma for them, starting Wednesday, will be about who makes way for Temba Bavuma, the regular skipper who returns having just been overlooked by all six franchises at the auction for the inaugural season of the SA20.

India came back from losing the opening game of the series to beat Australia by six wickets twice. Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be missed but Arshdeep Singh will come back into the side.

South Africa have become a strong white ball outfit and will be looking to get to at least the semi-final stage in the T20 World Cup later this year. They will fancy their chances of winning this match.

IND vs SA Match Toss Prediction

The last IT20 at this venue was won by West Indies who won the toss and chose to field first. We predict that both teams will choose to bowl first and chase a target in the second innings.

IND vs SA Pitch Report

It is a good batting wicket in Trivandrum and we expect spin bowlers to get plenty of turn from the surface. Any score over 180 will be very hard to chase.

Weather Report

It will be partly cloudy from start to finish in this match with the humidity levels above 80% throughout. We do not expect any rain to interrupt the fixture.

India

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh

SouthAfrica

Probable XI: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram/Rilee Rossouw, Temba Bavuma, Heinrich Klaasen/Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje

Thanks for the tag Madhu.🤗

Very tricky situation.

There is not much room, but, hope everyone stays mentally strong and physically fit.

Cheers..

The visitors have picked a strong squad for this tour with the likes of Bjorn Fortuin, Marco Jansen and Andile Phehlukwayo only able to be picked as stand-by players.

Skipper Temba Bavuma returns from injury to lead the team ahead of the T20 World Cup.

Key SA players to watch --

Reeza Hendricks- the right handed batter equalled the world record when he hit four successive half-centuries in this format earlier this summer. His run ended with 42 against Ireland.

Kagiso Rabada- the 27 year old right arm pace bowler has an excellent record in India during his seasons in the IPL. He has 52 IT20 wickets from 46 games.

Tabraiz Shamsi- the left-arm wrist spinner has taken 124 international wickets since making his debut in 2016. He took 4-36 in the CPL on September 14.

What to expect: Only two T20Is have been played at this venue, and only one of them a full 20-overs-a-side affair, in 2019. There's no threat of rain for Wednesday, with cloudy skies and temperatures in the late 20s.

Team News:

India

Injuries/Availability: Mohammed Shami hasn't travelled for the first T20I and is still out after recently missing the Australia series due to covid. Deepak Hooda too is not ready due to a back injury. India will be without Bhuvneshwar and Hardik Pandya in this series, who will undergo conditioning-related training at the NCA in Bengaluru in the lead-up to next month's World Cup.

Tactics & Matchups: With Hardik not available, these three games offer Pant the chance to prove he has more to offer to this Indian side than just his left-handedness, as the team has shown a tendency to prefer Dinesh Karthik over him in recent games. Yuzvendra Chahal, who has had the wood over the left-handed Quinton de Kock in T20s, will also look for an upturn in form following ordinary outings against Australia.

South Africa

Injuries/Availability: Bavuma returns after a three-month layoff, courtesy an elbow injury that he sustained on South Africa's previous tour of India in June.

Wayne Parnell, who picked a five-wicket haul in his last T20I in August, could trouble India's right-hander dominated top-order, who've all had issues against left-arm pace. On the batting front, South Africa will hope Quinton de Kock and David Miller can take the lead in blunting India's in-form spinner Axar Patel owing to their match-up superiority.

South Africa beat Ireland 2-0 and won the final two games against England so will be targeting their fifth successive victory in this match.

IND vs RSA Team Form in Last Five Matches

IND : W W L W L

RSA : W W W W L

India vs South Africa Head to Head

India lead South Africa 11-8 in the overall head to head. The sides had a five match IT20 series earlier this year which saw South Africa go 2-0 up before India came back. The final game was washed out with the series at 2-2.

In Reeza Hendricks, South Africa have a world-class batter in fantastic form. However, India’s top order looks the stronger, with their top four players likely to get in any IT20 side.

ndia and South Africa played four IT20s in India only three months ago and we do not expect South Africa to require any time to acclimatize. This should be an entertaining clash with quality spinners in excellent form on both sides. Overall, we are backing India to win this opening game of the series.

Did you know:

- In the 25 balls Rohit Sharma has faced against Kagiso Rabada, he has hit 37 runs but has also been dismissed twice

- Yuzvendra Chahal has dismissed Quinton de Kock 6 times in the 39 deliveries he bowled to the left-hander.

What they said:

"Coming back from an injury is never easy. He missed cricket for close to two months. Whenever bowlers go through an injury phase and come back, it's never easy, so we've not really judged him on how he has performed in these three games because we know his quality. He has bowled some tough overs for us in the past, and also for his franchise. We believe in his quality," - Rohit Sharma on Harshal Patel

"This is our last series before the World Cup. We'll be looking at this series to fill up whatever gaps that are there within the team." - Temba Bavuma

https://twitter.com/BCCI/status/1574769745135828994?s=20&t=dXZbPi97dsMCI23fd1PtwQ