The India-South Africa first T20I got underway on Wednesday at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram with the home skipper, Rohit Sharma, winning the toss and electing to field first.
Both the teams are coming off a 2-1 T20I series win – India over Australia, the Hyderabad T20I being staged only three days ago, while South Africa defeated England in England and have emerged as a dark horse for the T20 World Cup 2022. This is the last bilateral T20I series for both teams before both fly out to Australia for the T20 World Cup 2022.
Here is why Jasprit Bumrah didn’t play in the first T20I vs South Africa:
Soon after, the BCCI revealed that Bumrah had complained of back pain yesterday.
“Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain during India’s practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him. He is ruled out of the first #INDvSA T20I,” the BCCI said in their tweet.
🚨 UPDATE 🚨
Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain during India’s practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him. He is ruled out of the first #INDvSA T20I.#TeamIndia
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 28, 2022
While at the moment it is just a “niggle,” this is quite concerning for India given Bumrah had returned in the Australia series after two months during which he had missed the Asia Cup 2022 due to a back injury. With less than 10 days left for India to fly to Australia, the Men In Blue now are given a worry with regards to the fitness of their main fast bowler.
In two matches against Australia, Bumrah returned with figures of 1/23 (2 overs) and 0/50 (4 overs).
India captain Rohit Sharma also announced that Arshdeep Singh, who was rested for the South Africa series comes in the eleven, so do Deepak Chahar and R Ashwin for the rested Bhuvneshwar and Chahal is dropped. Pant gets a game as Hardik is rested.
Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
