Depleted South Africa hope to script turnaround

Overview

South Africa v India

New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
1st T20I
Sunday 18 February; 14:30 local time, 12:30 GMT

The three-Test series was a hard-fought affair that went the way of South Africa 2-1. Then came the series of six one-day internationals, and it was all about Virat Kohli and the Indian spin twins, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

South Africa were not at their strongest, with AB de Villiers missing the first three games, and Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock going out after the first and the second ODIs respectively. Even then, South Africa wouldn’t have anticipated a scoreline of 5-1 in India’s favour.

Between them, Yadav and Chahal picked up 33 of the 53 South African wickets to fall. If that pegged the batsmen back, the South African bowlers were put to the sword by the Indian top-order batsmen. Shikhar Dhawan was good, with one century and two half-centuries, and Rohit Sharma took care of the fifth ODI with his 115 from the top of the order. But Kohli batted at another level altogether. Even as India lost the Test series, he topped the batting charts with 286 runs, and it was more of the same in the ODIs, as he hit 112, 46*, 160*, 75, 36 and 129* for an incredible 558 runs from six games at an average of 186, all at a strike rate of 99.46.

All of those men are there for the T20Is too, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t give it their best shot to add the T20I trophy to the ODI one. They will back their chances too, because South Africa are again going to be without some of the men they would ideally want in their XIs: du Plessis and de Kock are still out, there’s no Hashim Amla or Kagiso Rabada around, and Imran Tahir has also been left out, while JP Duminy has been promoted as captain.

Instead, the team has two players with no international experience in Junior Dala, a 28-year-old right-arm medium pacer, and Christiaan Jonker, a 31-year-old batsman. Also in the mix is Heinrich Klaasen, who became such a hero after playing the lead role in South Africa’s only win in the ODI series.

Linda Zondi, the Cricket South Africa National Selection Panel Convener, explained that some of the changes were made keeping in mind South Africa’s upcoming Test series at home against Australia. “It is necessary for us to rest some of the players who have featured in virtually all our international matches so far this summer. These include Hashim Amla and Aiden Markram among the batsmen as well as most of our frontline fast bowlers. AB de Villiers has missed quite a lot of cricket this summer so he will play in the T20 series,” said Zondi.

“We have also decided to give Imran Tahir a break. He remains our first-choice spin bowler in both white-ball formats, but we need to give more game time to Tabraiz Shamsi and Aaron Phangiso. The next ICC World Twenty20 is not all that far away in 2020 so it is important that we develop and examine our resources for that tournament.”

In the short-term, that might affect South Africa’s chances, though with explosive batsmen like Duminy, David Miller and, of course, de Villiers around, India, who have brought back Suresh Raina after a long gap, have to be wary even if they look the stronger on paper.

Key players

AB de Villiers (South Africa): AB de Villiers was the top run-getter for South Africa in the Test series, but hasn’t been anywhere near his best since. He missed the first three ODIs because of a finger injury, and after coming back scored just 62 runs in the last three games. There’s no reason to believe he doesn’t have more good things left in him, but he has to put up a big show for South Africa to turn things around.

Jasprit Bumrah (India): While the spinners hogged the headlines, Bumrah, ranked No. 3 in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings for bowlers, went about his business quietly in the ODI series to finish with eight wickets at an economy rate of 3.97. Coming on the back of his debut Test series, where he picked up 14 wickets, it was another indication that he is someone with a bag of tricks and an ability to pick up wickets. If he can continue the good work with the new ball and at the death in the T20Is, India will be in a good place.

Conditions

Sunday should be partly cloudy in Johannesburg, with it generally being warm and a tad humid. The last time a T20I was played at the New Wanderers Stadium, in January 2017, South Africa were bowled out for 113 before Sri Lanka completed a three-wicket win. More recently, the final South Africa vs India Test was played there, and batting was tough. The best innings total was India’s 247 in the second dig and the other three innings all finished at under 200. With the change in format, one should expect a more batting-friendly pitch, though.

Squads

South Africa: JP Duminy (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Junior Dala, AB de Villiers, Reeza Hendricks, Christiaan Jonker, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Chris Morris, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, JJ Smuts.

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat.