After a nail-biter against Pakistan and a formidable victory against The Netherlands, India eyes a hat-trick of wins when they take on South Africa at Perth on Sunday in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022.
Both India and South Africa know each other quite well, they have played eight matches in 2022 against each other, all of them in India.
Four have been won by India while South Africa managed to pull back three of those with one match being washed out. The conditions here are completely different. It’s windy, chilly, partly cloudy- what all a seamer can ask for. The pitch at the Optus stadium also sported a green tinge which will clearly encourage the captains to go in with an all-out pace attack.
India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour, in the pre-match press conference, signaled that India will go in with the same XI, which means that they don’t want to change their winning combination. On the other hand, South Africa is also likely to unleash four fast bowlers. Tabraiz Shamsi, who doesn’t have a good record against India, is likely to make way for Lungi Ngidi.
As far as batting is concerned, India captain Rohit Sharma showed some signs of coming back to form against The Netherlands. Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav will be the players to watch out for and the Indian captain would be praying to get these two going in the most crucial match in the league games for India.
From Proteas, Quinton de Kock has started off the world cup well, Rilee Rossouw is looking very dangerous and India will have to be very careful countering him.
With Pakistan losing to Zimbabwe, Rohit Sharma and Temba Bavuma are eyeing an early final-four spot and this match could clear the picture.
Likely Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh
South Africa: Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma (c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Anrich Nortje,
Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
