Bengaluru: Stand-in South Africa skipper Keshav Maharaj has won the toss and elected to bowl first against an unchanged India in the series decider at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
The series is currently locked at 2-2 and Sunday’s winner under overcast skies at Bengaluru will decide the winner of the five-match series. In winner-takes-it-all affairs since 2016 in T20Is, India have won nine out of eleven times while losing just twice.
After winning the toss, Maharaj, captaining in absence of an injured Temba Bavuma, said Reeza Hendricks, Tristan Stubbs and Kagiso Rabada come into the playing eleven in place of Bavuma, Marco Jansen and Tabraiz Shamsi.
“The overhead conditions, the dew, we can look to exploit the conditions, but it does look like a good wicket to bat on. We have gone for the extra batter, hopefully, we’ll look to utilize it while batting upfront.”
An official statement from the South African team on Bavuma’s absence from the series decider due to an elbow injury sustained during the fourth T20I in Rajkot said, “He has an elbow injury that is responding well to treatment, but not well enough to play today.”
India captain Rishabh Pant, who lost the toss for the fifth consecutive time in the series, said, “Looks like a good wicket, we would like to get anything around 180-190. We just need to focus on the process and put in our 100% into the game.”
Playing XIs
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (captain & wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj (captain), Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje
(IANS)
