India bat with series win up for grabs; both sides unchanged

India chose to bat vs South Africa

Suryakumar Yadav won the toss for the first time in the four-match T20I series against South Africa and stuck to what has worked for them in their two wins so far. They will make South Africa chase at the Wanderers, in what is a must-win game for the hosts to avoid losing the series.

Both teams went in with the same XIs they fielded at SuperSport Park, which demonstrated India’s confidence in their specialist spinners even in conditions which suit seamers more. Varun Chakravarthy leads the wicket-takers’ list with 10 to his name, double that of his nearest rival, Arshdeep Singh. Ravi Bishnoi and Gerald Coetzee are next with four wickets each.

South Africa have not had consistent performers with ball in hand but have kept faith in a four-seam attack. Gerald Coetzee and Lutho Sipamla were particularly expensive on Friday evening, but Sipamla, on his home ground, may feel confident of his ability at the place where he put in a player-of-the-match performance in a domestic final just 10 days ago. Keshav Maharaj remains the sole specialist spinner. There has been no room for Donovan Ferreira, Patrick Kruger, Ottneil Baartman or uncapped allrounder Mihlali Mpongwana.

India have not needed reserve wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma, or uncapped left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, and right-arm seamer Vijaykumar Vyshak. India cannot lose the series but a win will give them a fifth-successive bilateral-series win this year. They have won 23 out of 25 matches in the format in 2024.

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Gerald Coetzee, 9 Andile Simelane, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Lutho Sipamla

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket

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