South Africa captain Aiden Markram won the coin toss and opted to bat first against India in the first ODI at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday.
India have given debut to 22-year-old top-order batter Sai Sudharsan who has played 25 List A games and scored 1269 runs at an average of 60.42 and a strike-rate of 96.28. He has six centuries and four half-centuries to his name as well.
Follow: India vs South Africa, 1st ODI
South Africa have given ODI debut to Nandre Burger who is a left-arm pacer and has taken 58 wickets in 39 List A games at 28.86 with a good economy of 5.10.
This is the first ODI series for both the sides since the world cup that ended last month. While South Africa ended their stellar campaign in the semi-final, a red-hot India fell flat in the title clash.
“Used wicket, we’d like to bat first, we are playing two spinners,” Markram said at he coin toss.
“It’s a fantastic day, hats off to the people. Hopefully both teams can put on a nice show for them,” he added while referencing to South Africa playing in pink kit today to spread awareness about breast cancer.
India skipper KL Rahul said despite the relative inexperience in his squad, the players here come with enough experience of playing in IPL and therefore are not new to pressure.
“Sai Sudharsan is on debut today. There are a few names that have played a lot of IPL cricket. They know what pressure is and how to handle it. They all come with IPL experience, hopefully that helps them here and they can perform to the best of their ability,” Rahul said.
Playing XIs
India: KL Rahul (captain and wicketkeeper), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar
South Africa: Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Tabraiz Shamsi
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