New Face in Town: Simelane’s Debut Headlines SA’s T20I Clash with India
South Africa’s T20I clash against India turned fresh as it celebrated the advent of 21-year-old Andile Simelane, seam-bowling all-rounder from Durban, as the Proteas look forward to beginning their home season on a high. The match is sure to be an exciting contest as both teams are loaded to the brim with talent.This will be South Africa’s first home game of the season and captain Aiden Markram has opted to bowl first, including a side with plenty of all-rounders. Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee return after four months away from the XI owing to injuries and conditioning, while Patrick Kruger keeps his place in the side.
In T20I South Africa also used two specialist spinners in Keshav Maharaj and Nqabayomzi Peter and while Markram himself could knock a few overs if required, Markram’s opening batting regular, Reeza Hendricks missed the game due to illness.
India, on the other hand, opted for the absolute utilization of its spinners as the left-arm spinner Axar Patel was joined by two legspinners—Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi. Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan provided the much-needed pace, while an all-rounder Ramandeep Singh wasn’t given a chance.India’s batting order with Surya, hard-looking batsmen in Sanju Samson and Hardik Pandya, and Axar Patel is at number 7. Overcast conditions were going to cling on for the entire day and hence it was going to be a match where the team having a powerful batting line-up would always look forward to a high-scoring game. Another strong breeze blowing continuously was not going to dislodge the batting-friendly condition.
South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton, 2 Aiden Markram (capt), 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 David Miller, 6 Patrick Kruger, 7 Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Nqabayomzi Peter.
India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
