🏏South Africa tour of India - 2025: India vs SA - 2nd Test: Day 2🏏 - Page 2

What they said:

"I want to be someone who gives that freedom [to players] and I want players to learn and make the right decision for the team eventually. That's the real goal and obviously whatever my knowledge is, I am going to help them on the field [with it]." - Rishabh Pant on his style of captaincy

"I think that the toss doesn't become too big a factor compared to what probably Kolkata was like. But in saying that, you know what, you want to win the toss, you know the advantage of batting on Day 1, Day 2, so I think that still becomes an advantage, but not such a deciding factor." - South Africa captain Temba Bavuma

Originally posted by: Savera84

What they said:

"I want to be someone who gives that freedom [to players] and I want players to learn and make the right decision for the team eventually. That's the real goal and obviously whatever my knowledge is, I am going to help them on the field [with it]." - Rishabh Pant on his style of captaincy

"I think that the toss doesn't become too big a factor compared to what probably Kolkata was like. But in saying that, you know what, you want to win the toss, you know the advantage of batting on Day 1, Day 2, so I think that still becomes an advantage, but not such a deciding factor." - South Africa captain Temba Bavuma

In india, on all popular venue winning toss is very important 'cause its effects the out come of results 99.99%

Thank you for the tag

Will definitely miss Gill in the match

South Africa have won the toss and have opted to bat

Toss time...

Pitch Report | Deep Dasgupta and Shaun Pollock: "Red soil pitch, the grass cover is substantial. Good pitch, it's nice and hard. With the early start, with the fact there's a bit of cloud, there'll be a little bit of moisture on the deck. Bat first and negotiate the first hour. We'll have to wait and see if there'll be spin. Looks like a really good Test pitch."

Again Lost the toss

Pant: A proud moment, I am thankful to BCCI to give me this opportunity. You want to grab it with both hands. Two changes. Nitish Reddy and Sai come in.

Bavuma: We'll have a bat. We got to start afresh. Wicket looks a lot better. Bat first, try to get a big score first up. No cracks (on the pitch) really. Very excited, happy to be a part of this historic moment. One change. Muthusamy comes in.

Teams:

South Africa (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma(c), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Senuran Muthusamy, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj

India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

So with this being the first Test in Guwahati, the two captains will sign portraits of the stadium as part of the pre-match ceremony. A book on the Ranji Trophy titled 'Plucky 13' by Sachin Bajaj will also be released during a breaks. Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya and Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma are also expected to be in attendance.

It's a historic moment as Guwahati is all in readiness to host its first-ever Test. The match officials and the players march out for the national anthems.

India have lost the toss in eight of the last nine Tests.

Rishabh Pant is the second wicketkeeper to lead India in Tests after MS Dhoni did that in 60 matches between 2008 and 2014.

Sky: "You drop Axar for Reddy? By the time test ends i am sure reddy will not even bowl 10 overs. This is beyond clueless. " - I think a point can be made that India wanted to add another right-hand batter, to try and negate Simon Harmer's impact, especially with only left-handed options available to replace Shubman Gill. Washington Sundar will likely take on a heavier bowling load to make up for Axar's absence.

Sarthak : "@Kush Sundar is a far better spinner than Muthuswamy so not sure how you counted 3 spinners for Sa and 2 for Ind"