Visakhapatnam, Dec 6 (UNI) India won the toss and elected to bowl in the third One Day International against South Africa, making a single change to their playing XI. Tilak Varma comes in for Washington Sundar, while South Africa made two changes, bringing in Ryan Rickelton and Ottneil Baartman, with Heinrich Burger and Tony de Zorzi ruled out for a couple of weeks.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, “We would have bowled first. A good start upfront will set it up for the middle order. It’s been entertaining. The crowd has come out. Hope today’s another thrilling one.”
India captain KL Rahul explained the decision to bowl, noting that dew is not expected to play a major role.
“We trained here last night and the feedback from the coaches was that there was dew, but it didn’t come in as early as Ranchi and Raipur. We were obviously planning to bowl second, keeping our track record in mind. But we just want to change the total and see how we can bowl first. It looks like a good wicket. We’re really happy with the way we played in the last two games,” he said.
Rahul added that the focus remains on consistency and execution. “The chat has been to keep doing the same thing and stay consistent with what we’re doing. The results will follow. Not many things are being changed. Just trying to sharpen a couple of things in the field,” he added.
Playing XIs:
South Africa – Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman.
India – Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna.
The third ODI promises an exciting encounter as India look to secure the series win.
India field first, make one change for ODI series decider
