Not often did the Indian side travel to the Pacific and came back with a positive result, but the fans are more disappointed than ever with what transpired in the ODI and Test series against New Zealand. Virat Kohli’s men delivered a comprehensive performance in the T20s, and they were lucky on some fronts to have won 5-0, but they were torn apart in the longer formats with the Indian side’s team selection topping the list of apprehension.
The Indian contingent’s biggest concern right now is the form of some of their top players like Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, who seemed to be way out of their usual groove. Will coming back to the subcontinent help these cricketers recuperate their lost form? Time will answer that question, but most importantly, the fans will be expecting these big players to convert this rough patch into a purple one.
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The Proteas are on the rise again, having thrashed Australia 3-0 in the ODI series. Some unlikely stars like Heinrich Klaasen and Janneman Malan stepped up for Mark Boucher’s troops as they marauded past the five-time World champions. Mark Boucher has had a pretty good impact on the side ever-since he joined the team as the head coach and they will be keen on replicating their heroic performance when they last visited India.
Recent months have been pretty disappointing for the South Africans and the Australia result helped them take a huge sigh of relief. However, traveling to India could be a significant challenge for this new crop of players. Besides a few names, not many of them have played international cricket in this part of the world and there is a good chance they could be exposed to it.
Bet on IND vs SA 1st ODI for South Africa to be the winners with odds of 3.25.To find better odds for betting on cricket for upcoming matches visit NetBet sports.
Key Players:
India
Prithvi Shaw
In the absence of Rohit Sharma, the onus will remain on Prithvi Shaw to deliver at the top. Although his performance against New Zealand wasn’t up to the mark in the ODIs, this is his first assignment against white ball in India and he could relish playing here. Although his selection over Mayank Agarwal has not been received well by the Indian fans, it would do the side a world of good if he can provide some blistering starts. He loves playing on the up against the new ball and maybe he will find it a bit easy to do in these conditions.
KL Rahul
KL Rahul has been in the form of his life and has been performing well no matter which position he’s made to bat. He registered 214 runs in the ODI series against New Zealand and did well against Australia in the series prior to that. His silky smooth cricketing shots make up for a delightful experience for the fans and in the picturesque Dharamshala outlook, a good knock from his willow could be the perfect thing to witness.
Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya’s return to international cricket will steal a lot of headlines, regardless of how he plays. He smashed two centuries in the DY Patil T20 Tournament in three games and looks in positive touch heading into this confidence.
South Africa
Heinrich Klaasen
Heinrich Klaasen burst into limelight having scored some big knocks against India and after a fairly long time, he delivered some of his best performances against Australia last week. He looks rejuvenated, just like the side he represents and Mark Boucher believes he has something special to offer. He scored two hundreds under two pretty difficult circumstances.
Bet on Quinton de Kock with odds of 9.00 of being adjudged the Man of the Match.
Quinton de Kock
Every transition period throws a character test to its players and from those tests emerge stars of the next generation. Quinton de Kock is turning out to be one of those stars for the South African team. He recently surpassed 5,000 ODI runs and is leading the side by example. His first visit to India as a captain wasn’t pretty bad, with the T20I series finishing in a stalemate and his men will be keen on delivering a knockout blow.
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Venue Details
This is the fourth ODI India is playing at this venue, having won two and lost two out of those games. Interestingly, the fast bowlers have found this ground pretty tantalizing and three of these four games were low scoring, where the chasing side emerged victorious. The only game which did witness some runs is the one where West Indies got hammered for 330 runs bowling first, with Virat Kohli starring the show.
The stadium is located on a higher altitude, which could produce some extra bounce for the spinners as well. There is every chance this one could be another low-scoring thriller with the side batting first holding the disadvantage. Toss could be pretty crucial, going by the statistics and both sides’ recent form.
Probable Playing XIs
India
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah
South Africa
Quinton de Kock (C & wk), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen , Janneman Malan, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj