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The white-ball leg of India’s tour of South Africa is set to conclude with two teams facing each other in the third and final ODI of the series. The series is locked at 1-1 currently with the visitors winning the opening game and South Africa levelling the series in the second ODI. With the series up for grabs, the hosts have decided to keep the winning combination not making any changes to their XI.
Meanwhile, India have handed over a debut to Rajat Patidar as their opening player Ruturaj Gaikwad has sustained a finger injury. In yet another change, the visitors have also included Washington Sundar in the playing XI at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav who has been rested. KL Rahul, the skipper, confirmed the injury to Gaikwad at the toss while also confirming that the chinaman bowler Kuldeep has been rested. For the unversed, Ruturaj had walked off the field after injuring himself while fielding in the second ODI.
“UPDATE – Ruturaj Gaikwad hasn’t fully recovered from the blow he sustained to his ring finger while fielding in the second ODI. He remains under the supervision of the BCCI Medical Team,” BCCI said in a statement soon after the toss.” Meanwhile, KL Rahul wasn’t really fussed about batting first in this match and reckoned it as another opportunity for the players to express themselves.
” Not really bothered by being asked to bat first. The wicket will be even for both innings and the lights come on pretty late here. We got ourselves to a good position in the previous game but ended up losing 5 wickets for 40 odd runs. Once we get a good start, we have to make it count. Today is another opportunity for the boys to prove themselves. This looks like a much better wicket than the previous two, hopefully we can get plenty of runs on the board. Two changes – Rajat Patidar makes his ODI debut, Rutu misses out after doing some damage to his finger,” he said.
South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram had no hesitation in bowling first after winning the toss. “We’ll bowl first. Looks like a good wicket, won’t change too much. We want to keep challenging ourselves, hopefully we can take wickets regularly and restrict them to a low total. One last push for most of the guys before a nice break, we’ll try our best. Expect more of the same we did in the second ODI. The dimensions here are certainly different, so running hard between wickets will be key. No change,” he said.
Playing XIs
India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson, Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul(w/c), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
South Africa (Playing XI): Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams, Beuran Hendricks
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