India and South Africa are engaged in the Rajkot T20I on Friday. The hosts have lost their fourth straight toss under Rishabh Pant, as the visitors would again be fielding first.
After three compelling and engaging games, India and South Africa lock horns in the fourth Twenty20 International (T20I) at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Friday. There seems to be no luck for stand-in Indian skipper Rishabh Pant in terms of toss, as he has lost his fourth consecutive toss in as many games, with South African captain Temba Bavuma again preferring to chase. The hosts are trailing the five-match series 1-2 and in dire need of a win, as a loss would result in a series defeat. Having won the last T20I convincingly, the Men in Blue would look to draw some inspiration from the same and tame the Proteas in successive games.
After winning the toss, Bavuma commented, "We will have a bowl. We are not sure how the wicket will play. There are not enough stats behind it. But, we are chasing well and backing our strength. We have heard it is quite a good wicket and the scores were high in the domestic games."
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"Par score is about 180, and we are hoping the wicket gets better. We have a couple of forced changes; [Kagiso] Rabada and [Wayne] Parnell miss out due to injuries, Reeza Hendricks also misses out, and Quinton de Kock has recovered and is back. Marco Jansen and [Lungi] Ngidi are coming in. Hopefully, we have a lot more [runs] coming from the top, and the guys keep going in the middle," added Bavuma.
Meanwhile, Pant remarked after losing the toss, "We were looking to bowl first. We are only focusing on our process and not thinking this is a must-win game. We are trying to increase our run rate in the middle overs, and that's what we are trying to achieve as a team. We are playing with the same team."
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Playing XI
IND: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan.
SA: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi and Anrich Nortje.