Having comprehensively won the first T20I against South Africa by 61 runs, Team India was, however, shocked when they lost by three wickets in the second match. Suryakumar Yadav and company appeared to crumble under the pressure in Gqeberha and managed to score 124 runs for the fall of 6 wickets. Later, Varun Chakarvarthy gave some reason to cheer for the Indian supporters by taking five wickets but the South African team finished the match with six balls to spare. Now that the four-match series was tied at one apiece, India will sportingly want to rebound in the third T20I on Wednesday in Centurion.
The Indian batting order will have no choice but to seek revenge against a rampaging South Africa in the third match at SuperSport Park, Centurion. In addition to that unexpected aspect, India will be faced with the low form of the batters especially with the fact that the pitch here has been marketed as being identical to the one in Gqeberha – fast and bouncy.
The trouble starts from the very top – more specifically Abhishek Sharma, the lengthy bad run that he has had is now turning out to be a worrying development. He is in dire need of a performance here, otherwise, the management will be seriously considering changing the combination.
As of now, they can even think of handing over the task of joining Sanju Samson at the top to Tilak Varma, while Ramandeep Singh is drafted in the middle to add some strength to the team.
However the senior most batsmen, skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Pandya and Rinku Singh have also played their part in the misery that the team has suffered.
So did pacer Arshdeep Singh, who was impressive and Avesh Khan, who was poor. Arshdeep’s numbers read 1 for 25 in Durban, but second game was 1 for 41.
So they too would wish to turn around the situation this time, or else the management would be looking at others like Yash Dayal or Vysakh Vijaykumar.
India’s Predicted XI for the 3rd T20I: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Yash Dayal, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Avesh Khan
