India Will face South Africa in the first match of the three-match ODI series. This article provides details about the India vs South Africa playing 11 for the first match of the series.
India Playing XI vs South Africa – 1st ODI, South Africa tour of India 2025:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal
The home team will be aiming to build on the good start they got in the ODI against South Africa in the recently concluded two-match Test series against the same opponent.
The Men in Blue have been in good form in ODI cricket over the last few years, except for the last series against Australia, which they lost by a margin of two matches.
The former ODI World Cup winners will be looking to take full advantage of their home conditions and maintain their strong record in this format of the game.
The Men in Blue will be without three of their experienced players in captain Shubman Gill, vice-captain Shreyas Iyer and former skipper Hardik Pandya and will be led by KL Rahul, with Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings in place of Gill.
Jaiswal will be accompanied by Rohit Sharma, who scored a brilliant century in the last ODI against Australia and would like to take it forward by playing a match-winning innings in the first match.
Both Jaiswal and Rohit will be entrusted with the responsibility of giving the team a good start in the first ten overs and setting the stage for the middle-order batsmen to take advantage.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (captain/wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy,
When it comes to India’s middle order, it will see a few changes in the ODI series against Australia with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja replacing Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel respectively.
It will be interesting to see how Ruturaj Gaikwad bats at number four, as he is primarily an opening batsman.
Another thing worth noting in the team is that the selectors have picked three wicketkeepers in the form of Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel for this special series.
Of these three, there is every possibility that if Rahul is made the captain for the series, only he will play with them.
India are expected to bat up to number eight with three all-rounders, two spinners and one fast bowling all-rounder, with Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy at six, seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Bowlers: Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh
As far as the bowling attack is concerned, it will include six bowling options, three all-rounders and three specialist bowlers for the first ODI against South Africa.
Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh will take charge of India’s fast bowling department, while Nitish Kumar Reddy will be the third fast bowler.
Experienced spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav will be the two frontline spinners and Washington Sundar will assist them.
Amidst the number of bowling options available to him, it will be interesting to see how captain KL Rahul manages them.
