India face South Africa in a must-win second ODI at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi on Sunday. The Shikhar Dhawan-led side will look for a better batting performance when they battle it out against the Proteas to keep the series alive. In the first game, South Africa had set a target of 250 runs for India in a rail-curtailed 40 overs-a-side game but India remained 9 runs short of the guests’ total. While Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer were impressive with the bat, other Indian batters failed to put in a similar performance.
Meanwhile, full-time Indian pacers Mohammed Siraj and Avesh Khan too remained wicketless. Given Deepak Chahar has already been ruled out of the series due to injury, it adds more pressure on the team. In such a scenario, will the team hand a debut match to Mukesh Kumar?
Here is what we think could be India’s playing XI vs South Africa in the second ODI:
Shikhar Dhawan (c): The Indian stand-in skipper had a poor outing with the bat as he scored only 4 runs off 16 balls against South Africa in the first ODI match.
Shubman Gill: It was a rare poor outing for the right-handed batter in ODI format. He was dismissed for 3 runs off 7 balls in the first ODI vs South Africa. Notably, Gill is the fatest Indian to score 500 ODI runs. He took only 10 innings to reach there.
Ruturaj Gaikwad: The right-handed batter failed to perform well with the bat against South Africa in the first ODI match. He played slow innings of 19 runs that came off 42 balls and had a major role in India’s loss.
Shreyas Iyer: The Mumbai-born batter didn’t perform well in the third T20I against South Africa but he was in menacing form in the first ODI against the same opponent. Iyer had scored a 37-ball 50 in the game.
Ishan Kishan: The southpaw, who prefers to open the batting, failed to make an impact in the middle order. Coming in to bat at the number 4 position in the first ODI vs South Africa, Kishan scored 20 runs off 37 balls.
Sanju Samson (wk): The wicketkeeper-batter was at his very best in the first ODI and almost won the game for India singlehandedly towards the end. Samson scored 86 not out of 63 balls in a losing cause though. His innings was laced with 9 fours and 3 sixes.
Shardul Thakur: The right-handed all-rounder had a good outing in Lucknow. He had returned figures of 2 for 35 in the 8 overs he bowled, while he scored a 31-ball 33 with the bat.
Kuldeep Yadav: The Chinaman bowler got good help from the surface in Lucknow and that saw him returning figures of 1 for 39 in 8 overs. He had bowled a peach of a delivery to clean up Aiden Markram.
Ravi Bishnoi: The leg-spinner didn’t have a memorable ODI debut as he conceded 69 runs in his 8 overs while picking the only wicket of Quinton de Kock.
Promoted
Mohammed Siraj: The right-arm pacer conceded 49 runs in his 8 overs against South Africa in the first ODI and he failed to take any wicket.
Avesh Khan: The right-arm pacer conceded 51 runs in his 8 overs against South Africa in the first ODI and he too remained wicketless.
Topics mentioned in this article