India vs South Africa – Team India Playing XI: Umran Malik Misses Out As Ruturaj Gaikwad And Dinesh Karthik Included

The first match of the T20I series between India and South Africa is about to get underway at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and elected to bowl. India’s stand-in captain Rishabh Pant said that it was a proud moment for him as a Delhi boy to lead India for the first time in his home town.

“I think it is a good surface and don’t mind batting first. But if I had won the toss I would have bowled first. It is one of the proudest moment in my cricketing career so far. Because a Delhi boy getting that (captaincy) honour at Delhi is a huge thing for me. Thanks to everyone for giving me this opportunity. We know our XI but at the same time we are giving different roles to players and see how they cope with that going forward,” Pant said at the toss.

There was no place in the playing XI for express paceman Umran Malik.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will open the batting along side Ishan Kishan after KL Rahul was ruled out of the series due to an injury. Avesh Khan will do the fast bowling duties along side Bhuvneshwar Kumar and death overs specialist Harshal Patel.

India’s solid middle order will feature IPL stars Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer.

India are on the cusp of a world record. A win in this match will be the 13th consecutive in T20Is for India, which will help them break Afghanistan’s record.

Currently the record for most consecutive wins is shared by India and Afghanistan with 12 wins.

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India Playing XI vs South Africa, 1st T20I: Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, DK, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar kumar, Avesh Khan and Axar Patel