India Playing XI vs South Africa – 1st Test, South Africa Tour of India 2025:
Openers: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul
The hosts are keen to carry the winning momentum they have from a T20I series win against Australia into the first Test against South Africa at home.
The selectors have decided to stick with the same core that took on West Indies in the last assignment in this format of the game, with the addition of India’s vice-captain Rishabh Pant.
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Pant, who suffered an injury during a Test match during the tour of England, will be seen in action after getting some game time under his belt with two multi-day matches against India and will be ready to go.
The inclusion of Pant will make things interesting for the captain and management in terms of batting line-up, the reason being the form of Dhruv Jurel.
Jurel has been in brilliant form since the home series against the West Indies and it would be difficult to leave him out of the starting XI.
Apart from that, the rest of the Indian batting order is expected to feature the usual names with Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul opening the innings.
The duo were in excellent form in the series against the Windies, evidenced by both batters scoring hundreds individually, getting the side off to a good start.
The pair would look to build on that by replicating the same performance in the first Test against South Africa.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel
Amid the debate over the inclusion of Dhruv Jurel in the playing XI, there is no room for discussion on who should be India’s number three, four and five for the upcoming match.
Sai Sudharshan is likely to bat at number three, followed by Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant.
All three batters would be looking to make significant contributions while batting at their respective positions, especially Sai, who would be under some pressure as he has not been able to perform consistently in the handful of opportunities so far.
Apart from the above-mentioned batters, it has been made clear by the team management that Dhruv Jurel will play solely as a batsman and Nitish Kumar Reddy will have to wait.
Bowlers: Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
When we talk about the bowling combination, two fast bowlers and three spinners are expected to play, with the surface being a little more suited to spin bowling than pace.
When it comes to the spinners, the team management could go with Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin and Washington Sundar’s off-spin. Kuldeep Yadav is likely to be the third spin bowling option for the hosts. He was sent halfway to Australia to prepare for the South African Tests.
The presence of the two spinners will also add depth to the batting line-up, which will expand to number nine with Akash Deep coming to bat at that particular position.
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