Big picture – India under rare pressure
While it might be prudent to ignore the meltdown the country went into at just the third loss in a year in a fickle format, India will need to address issues. Was the reason behind promoting a spin disruptor, Axar Patel, against high pace a good one? What does Suryakumar Yadav need to do to get some runs? How do they get Marco Jansen out of their hair?
A potentially spicy final week of this exciting tour is now upon us.
India LWWWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
South Africa WLLLW
In the spotlight – Donovan Ferreira and Jasprit Bumrah
Team news – Changes only if conditions ask for them
India might have lost comprehensively but their combination was hardly at fault. Don’t expect much to change unless they want more batting depth or extra spin options.
India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt.), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
South Africa might bring back Anrich Nortje for Lutho Sipamla; the spinner slot might be a toss-up between Keshav Maharaj and George Linde, who have both played a match each.
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Aiden Markram (capt.), 3 Tristan Stubbs/ Reeza Hendricks, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 David Miller, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 George Linde/ Keshav Maharaj, 9 Lungi Ngidi/ Corbin Borsch, 10 Ottneil Baartman, 11 Anrich Nortje/ Lutho Sipamla
Pitch and conditions – All about the chase
“On a night when he’s off you got to take what you can get because I don’t know when you can get it again. He’s a world-class performer and I’m sure he’ll be back to his best again tomorrow night or maybe later in the series.”
South Africa coach Shukri Conrad on how Bumrah was taken for 45 runs in his four wicketless overs in the second T20I
