South African captain Temba Bavuma is missing from the first ODI Three match series against India At the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi, Aiden Markram stepped in as stand-in captain after South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Why is Temba Bavuma not playing today’s match against India?
Bavuma, who led South Africa to its first Test series win in India since 2000, became unwell on match day, leading the team management to rest him as a precaution ahead of the remaining ODIs in Raipur and Visakhapatnam. This is due to his heavy workload in all formats recently, including Tests, where he averaged 45.50 with a brilliant century. Markram, an experienced deputy with prior ODI captaincy experience, takes charge for the opening match of the series, batting at number three in the predicted lineup with Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton at the top.
Despite the change in captaincy, South Africa come in confident from their red-ball dominance, with a strong top order and seam options like Marco Johnson and Lungi Ngidi to take advantage of Ranchi’s seam-friendly pitch and potential dew. Bavuma’s availability for the subsequent games remains a possibility, but his absence tests the team’s depth in this white-ball reset after the Test defeat to India.
Apart from Bavuma, South Africa has also decided to rest left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who played a key role in the historic Test series win on Indian soil.
“We will bowl first. Spent a few evenings here… there will be dew at night and it will be a little easier to bat at night.” Markram said after winning the toss.
“Just one spinner in Subrayan, I will bowl a bit – Temba and Maharaj have been rested, four seamers for us today,” He added.
IND vs SA: Playing XI of both the teams
India: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul (captain and wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock (wk), Aiden Markram (c), Matthew Britzke, Tony De Zorzi, Dewald Brewis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Prenelan SubrayenNandre Berger, Otniel Bartman
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