South Africa decided to bowl against India.
48 hours after Sunday’s series opener in Durban washed out without even a toss, circumstances in Gqeberha, down the coast, appeared to be improving. The surface was covered for the majority of the day due to heavy cloud hanging over St George’s Park, however the light drizzle stopped in time for the second match. The toss winner, Aiden Markam, desired that his bowlers use the conditions first.
South Africa stuck with players they had previously used, resisting the temptation to give left-arm seamer Nandre Burger his first cap. Reeza Hendricks and Matthew Breetzke will be paired at the top of the order, with David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, and Tristan Stubbs also in the lineup. Donovan Ferreira was left out of the starting eleven, but Marco Jansen and Andile Phehlulwayo were picked in an XI that had two all-round players and one spinner. For this match, Tabraiz Shamsi was picked ahead of Keshav Maharaj.
India chose Shubman Gill at the top of the order over the out-of-form Ruturaj Gaikwad. However, they were unable to accommodate legspinners Ravi Bishnoi or Deepak Chahar, so they went with Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar. Taking over as captain for this series, Suryakumar Yadav was as content to forfeit the toss as he was indifferent to his team’s composition. He’s “told the boys to enjoy themselves,” rather than concentrating on the T20 World Cup later this year.
South Africa: 1 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markam, and 4 Matthew Breetzke 5 David Miller Sixth Tristan Stubbs 7 Jansen Marco, 8 Phehlukwayo Andile, 10 Lizaad Williams, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi, and 9 Gerald Coetzee
India’s starting eleven are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, and 11 Mukesh Kumar.
