India Will face South Africa in the first match of the three-match ODI series. This article provides details about the playing 11 of South Africa vs India for the first match of the series.
South Africa Playing XI vs India – 1st ODI, South Africa tour of India 2025:
Openers: Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock (wk)
After winning the historic Test series against India, South Africa will be full of confidence and they would like to get the same confidence in the three-match ODI series against them and would like to perform strongly in the first match.
Having said that, the visitors will have their work cut out against a strong Indian batting lineup, which includes players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who are quite experienced in this format of the game.
The Proteas have also announced a strong squad for this special series, with names like Aiden Markram and captain Temba Bavuma, both of whom were not part of Africa’s last ODI series against Pakistan, returning for this special series.
No matter how strong the batting order looks on paper, it will all depend on how it performs on the field, and the African openers will play a vital role in ensuring that the team gets off to a good start by building a strong partnership against the new ball.
The opening pair of experienced batsmen Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram will be entrusted with the responsibility of doing their job in the first ten overs by scoring runs both in partnership and individually.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Temba Bavuma (captain), Matthew Britzke, Dewald Brewis, David Miller, Marco Jansson, Corbin Bosch.
South Africa’s middle order will be boosted by the presence of regular captain Temba Bavuma, who missed the Pakistan tour due to injury.
Bavuma would like to lead from the front and would like good support from the other batsmen as well
It will be interesting to see what kind of approach the African batsmen adopt as the Proteas bat deep with Keshav Maharaj capable of batting at number nine.
However, the responsibility of scoring a large number of runs for the team will be on the top five African batsmen and they will not have to depend on the lower order batsmen to score runs.
Bowlers: Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Prenelon Subrayan
As far as Africa’s bowling lineup is concerned, it is expected to have a good mix of fast bowlers and spinners.
Like India, South Africa are also predicted to field a bowling combination of three fast bowlers and three spinners in the first match, which also includes Aiden Markram.
Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch and Lungi Ngidi will handle the team’s fast bowling attack and will look to take wickets at regular intervals at all stages of the innings.
Keshav Maharaj and Prenelan Subrayan will be the two specialist spinners in the attack and they will be assisted by Aiden Markram, taking the number of bowling options available to Temba Bavuma to six.
