India Playing XI vs South Africa – 1st ODI, South Africa Tour of India 2025:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal
The home side would be aiming for a good start to the ODI against South Africa, unlike what they got in the recently concluded two-match Test series against the same opponent.
The Men in Blue have been in decent form in ODI cricket in recent years apart from the last series against Australia which they lost by a margin of two games to one.
Your daily dose of cricket!
The former ODI World Cup winners are keen to make the most of their home conditions and maintain their strong record in this format.
The Men in Blue would be without three of their experienced players in the form of captain Shubman Gill, vice-captain Shreyas Iyer and former captain Hardik Pandya, and will be led by KL Rahul, with Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings in place of Gill.
Jaiswal will be joined by Rohit Sharma, who scored a stunning century in the last ODI match he played against Australia, and would look to build on that by playing a match-winning knock in the first match.
Both Jaiswal and Rohit will be entrusted to get the team off to a good start in the first ten overs and lay a platform for the middle-order batters to take advantage of.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (c/wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy,
When it comes to India’s middle order, the country will also witness some changes from the order from the ODI series against Australia, with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja replacing Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel respectively.
It would be interesting to see how Ruturaj Gaikwad fares at number four as he is predominantly an opener.
Another notable thing about the squad is that the selectors have picked three wicketkeepers for this particular series: Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel.
Of the three, chances are that only Rahul will play with him as he is named as the captain of the series.
India is expected to make the cut at number eight with three all-rounders, two spin and one fast bowling all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy occupying the numbers six, seven and eight respectively.
Bowlers: Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh
As for the bowling attack, it will consist of six bowling options, three all-rounders and three specialist bowlers for the first ODI against South Africa.
Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh will look after India’s fast bowling department, with Nitish Kumar Reddy as the third fast bowler.
Experienced spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav will be the two frontline spinners and will be assisted by Washington Sundar
Amid the number of bowling options at his disposal, it will be interesting to see how captain KL Rahul manages them.
#India #Plays #South #Africa #1st #ODI #South #African #Tour #India