India and South Africa will meet on Sunday in a crucial Group 2 Super 12 round match in Perth. This is an important game for both teams as they aim to move closer to sealing a semi-final berth.
India have won both their matches so far – against Pakistan and the Netherlands – and are well placed for a semi-final slot. South Africa’s first game against Zimbabwe was washed out with the Proteas within touching distance of winning the game, and both teams shared a point, and they blasted Bangladesh by 104 runs.
Talking about Team India, here is the probable playing XI for the match against South Africa:
There seem little signs that Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid will make any changes to the eleven, although fans have been asking for the axing of KL Rahul as the opener and to replace him with Rishabh Pant, who also brings in the left-handedness.
Rahul has recorded scores of 4 and 9 and has looked tentative when the ball is on the stumps or in the channel outside off-stump. He chopped on against Naseem Shah before being trapped lbw by Paul van Meekeren.
Claims for Pant’s inclusion also stem from the fact that he had success on the Test tour last time around. However, as exciting as that prospect seems, the Sharma-Dravid management is unlikely to tinker with their winning eleven.
The wicket-keeper who has played in both the matches so far – Dinesh Karthik – hasn’t got much chance to showcase his skills, though he could have done better against Pakistan when with 2 runs required off the last two balls, Karthik got out playing a weird shot to Mohammad Nawaz. Thankfully, Ashwin and his smarts helped India cross the line against Pakistan. Karthik didn’t get to bat against the Dutch.
Among the bowlers, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal sat on the bench for both games so far, and are likely to do so against the Proteas barring any late injury to any of the playing eleven bowlers. R Ashwin has returned with figures of 0/23 in 3 overs vs Pakistan and 2/21 in 4 overs vs Netherlands, living up to his billing of keeping the scoring rate in check, something which Chahal has been inconsistent in doing in recent times. The pacy and bouncy Perth surface isn’t going to suit Harshal Patel’s bowling either, so he won’t come into contention for this game.
Conclusion: We are expecting India to stick with the winning XI from the last two matches.
India predicted XI vs South Africa:
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
