India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against South Africa in the third and final T20I of the three-match series at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, here on Tuesday.
India, who is leading the series made three changes in their side as Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav and Md Siraj came in place of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Arshdeep Singh for this match.
“We’re going to field first. It’s a very high-scoring ground, I feel the pitch won’t change a lot so it’s nice to know what target is in front of us. Three changes for us, Kohli and KL are out, and Arshdeep misses out for some issues with his back. It is precautionary, nothing serious. We’ve got Shreyas Iyer, Umesh Yadav, and Siraj in,” said Rohit at the toss.
“We want to keep challenging ourselves, keep improving and keep batting the same way,” he added.
On the other hand, Temba Bavuma-led South Africa made just one change as Dwayne Pretorius replaced Anrich Nortje for this game.
“Wasn’t too sure on what to do today, not too fussed about losing the toss. As a leader, these are the kind of games you want to contribute to. Hopefully, I can repay the team today. The series is out of our reach but this is our last opportunity to achieve a few objectives ahead of the World Cup,” said Bavuma.
“One change today – Dwayne Pretorius comes in for Nortje, just to give an extra option with a change of pace. We need to win today, it is a chance for some of our batters to find some form, and also as a group to try and click together,” he added.
Playing XIs:
South Africa:
Temba Bavuma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.
India:
Rohit Sharma(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
