India and South Africa will be squaring off against each other in the first ODI of the three-match series on Thursday at Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. The hosts would be led by Shikhar Dhawan while Temba Bavuma is the captain of the Proteas. On Wednesday, on the eve of the match, India’s practice session was cancelled due to rain, and there is some forecast for some more rain on Thursday so the question needs to be asked — will the 1st ODI be spoiled by a downpour in Lucknow?
The match is slated to start at 1:30 PM IST with toss slated to be held at 1 PM IST.
As per Accuweather, around 1 PM, 94 per cent cloud cover is expected with 1.6mm of rainfall also predicted on the radar. Humidity would be around 82 per cent.
The cloud cover is forecasted to be there throughout the day. Once again around 3 PM, some more rain is on the radar so it needs to be seen whether the game is spoiled by a downpour or drizzle.
As the second-string side gets ready for the ODI series, it is important to mention that the main side have departed for Australia for the upcoming T20 World Cup. The Rohit Sharma-led team left for Down Under on Thursday morning.
All the stand-by players for the T20 World Cup, playing in the South Africa ODI series will aim to use the three games to make a case for themselves for the main squad, stand-in skipper Shikhar Dhawan said on Wednesday.
With Jasprit Bumrah already ruled out, the series could be a shot-out between Deepak Chahar, who is in the stand-by list and Mohammed Siraj, who could make that list in the event that Mohammed Shami fails to become match-fit before October 15.
Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi and Chahar are the standbys named for the Indian team for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia and will be travelling Down Under as reserves.
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“Of course, it is very important because the more matches they (standby players) are going to play, they will be in better groove and better mindset. If the boys perform well, then obviously the confidence will help them. Who knows they might get a chance so they can look at this series as preparation,” Dhawan said here on the eve of the first game.
With PTI inputs
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