India vs South Africa, 1st T20I – Match Prediction

After beating Australia in the three-match T20I series, India will take on South Africa in the first T20I at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. These will be the last three T20Is before the Rohit Sharma-led plays their first T20 World Cup match against Pakistan.

Indian batters are coming up with consistent performances but their bowling still remains a cause of concern before the T20I showpiece. Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel returned after recuperating from their respective injuries but they failed to hit the ground running against Australia. Thus, the duo will look to be at their best against South Africa and turn the tables.

Furthermore, Mohammad Shami is yet to recover from Covid-19 and he has been ruled out of the series. Moreover, Deepak Hooda is out with a back spasm and it has been understood that Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed have been added to the Indian squad.

On the other hand, South Africa will also look to get the crucial game time under their belt. The last time they had toured India was a few months ago and the series had ended in a 1-1 tie.

South Africa had won their previous T20I series against England and they will look to continue the good show against the home team. Reeza Hendricks and Rilee Rossouw were the top performers with the bat for the Proteas against England and they will look to continue the good show.

Squad of both teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Umesh Yadav, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shreyas Iyer.

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Bjorn Fortuin, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo.