Centurion, Feb 20:
A ruthless India has only complacency to guard against while a deflated South Africa would be fighting another battle of survival when the two sides clash in the series-deciding second Twenty20 International, here tomorrow.
The Men in Blue won the first T20I at Johannesburg by 28 runs and a victory tomorrow will see them wrap up another series win on this tour.
A highly competitive 1-2 loss in the Tests, followed by a comprehensive 5-1 ODI triumph has made for quite a roller-coaster tour so far and the Indians would be aiming for a happy end to the long sojourn with a T20 victory.
A prospective 3-0 series’ win would also help India climb up the ICC T20I Rankings and take up second spot behind Pakistan. However, if Australia beat New Zealand in the T20 tri-series’ final (on Wednesday as well), India would stay on in their current third position.
Word from the Indian camp is that Virat Kohli will be fit in time for game. The skipper had hobbled off in latter stages of the previous game on Sunday with a left hip problem. The team management had deemed the issue as “nothing serious”, and as such, he is expected to walk out at toss time on tomorrow.
Kohli had suffered a slight knee issue while fielding in the first ODI at Durban as well, but he brushed it off to score a fine hundred thereafter. Even so, another injury scare only underlines his exhaustive workload.
Wrapping up the series here might also enable Kohli to take time off and sit out the final T20I in Cape Town, keeping in mind his hectic schedule over the next three months.
If at all, India do need to consider his absence from this second match, then K L Rahhul would come in as replacement.
He was left out from the previous game in favour of Manish Pandey, but now comes back into reckoning owing to Kohli’s pending fitness ruling.
Teams (from):
India: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur.
South Africa: JP Duminy (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Junior Dala, Reeza Hendricks, Christiaan Jonker, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Chris Morris, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Jon-Jon Smuts.
Match starts at: 9.30 pm IST. (PTI)
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