IND vs SA 2022, Delhi T20I: South Africa opts to field; Pant honoured to lead India

India and South Africa face off in the opening T20I in Delhi on Thursday. The visitors have won the toss and will be fielding first.

After the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) chaos ended nearly a couple of weeks back, it is time for international cricket again. India is taking on South Africa in the opening Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday. The series happens to be of five matches and will act as its preparations for the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in October. As for the game, the visiting skipper Temba Bavuma won the coin toss and opted to field, judging the slow nature of the track initially and was confident of it getting better to bat in the second half.

During the toss, Bavuma noted, "It [the pitch] was a bit slow and sloppy at the beginning. Hopefully, we can exploit that, restrict them to a decent score, and chase it down. Aiden was not available for selection as he tested positive for COVID. Stubbs comes, and it is a debut for him."

"We have two all-rounders; Dwaine and Parnell also come into the fold. It is an important series as we haven't been together as a group since the World Cup. It is a preparation for the World Cup coming up in Australia. For us, it is about building momentum and confidence going ahead," added Bavuma.

On the other hand, Rishabh Pant is leading India after KL Rahul was injured on Wednesday and ruled out. He remarked on captaining the side, "It is one of the proudest moments in my cricketing career so far. Because a Delhi boy getting that [leadership] honour at Delhi is a massive thing for me. Thanks to everyone for giving me this opportunity. We know our XI, but at the same time, we are providing different roles to players and see how they cope with that going forward."

Playing XI
India: Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.