India Will face South Africa in the third match of the three-match ODI series. This article provides details about the playing 11 of India vs South Africa for the third match of the series.
India Playing XI vs South Africa – 3rd ODI, South Africa tour of India 2025:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal
India will be hoping to score 10-15 runs more than what they scored in the second ODI against South Africa, as they lost despite scoring 358 runs with centuries from Kohli and Gaikwad.
The KL Rahul-led side once again got the job done with the bat for the best part of the innings and kept the pressure on the opposition bowlers.
Having said that, there were a few areas where the Men in Blue would hope for a better result in the upcoming match, one of them being the opening partnership.
The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal have not been able to perform well together and are expected to do so in the series decider.
The team management is hopeful that if Rohit starts well in the second ODI, he will score well.
Talking about the individual performance of both the batsmen in the first two matches, Rohit started the series with a century and looked good before getting out in the last match.
On the other hand, Yashasvi has not been able to perform well in the series and will be under some pressure in the next match.
Both the batsmen would also like to score a big individual score and set a platform for the batsmen to come in the first ten overs.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul (captain/wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja.
As far as the form of India’s middle order in the second ODI is concerned, it failed to continue the good work done by Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad, both of whom scored aggressive centuries, with only KL Rahul scoring a half-century.
The lack or contribution of players like Washington Sundar, who was out for one run, and Ravindra Jadeja, who failed to find a place in the middle of the bat, meant that India failed to score an extra 10-15 runs, which proved to be decisive in the end.
However, the way Kohli and Ruturaj played aggressively in the middle phase of the innings after the team lost both the openers in quick succession, credit should be given to Kohli and Ruturaj for getting India’s innings back on track.
The pair will look to do more of the same on a good surface to bat on in Visakhapatnam.
Bowlers: Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
Bowling and fielding were the two aspects that played a crucial role in seeing India on the wrong side of the result after the second ODI, and it will be hoping for better efforts with the ball and fielding to emerge victorious in the next match.
After being expensive in the last match, players like Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna will be given the responsibility to perform better in the series decider.
On the other hand, Arshdeep Singh, the spearhead of the Indian fast bowling attack in this particular series, was the only bowler who was able to execute his plans and will hope to do the same in the last match.
India’s spin bowling attack also looked lackluster, with Kuldeep Yadav being the only spinner who bowled his quota of overs and did a good job of taking one wicket, which could have been two wickets in difficult bowling conditions, especially for the spinners.
Along with Kuldeep, Ravindra Jadeja was another slow bowler who provided some sort of control, while Washington Sundar did not look completely in form with the bat, ball and fielding, and will be hoping for a strong comeback in the third game.
