🏏India tour of South Africa:1st T20I at Kingsmead Durban Nov 8🏏 - Page 4

Aiden Markram: We are going to bowl first. Looks a pretty good wicket. There has been some rain around this week and if there's moisture we want to make use of it. Fantastic opportunity for guys to make their debuts at home and it is a great time for them to enjoy the game. We are quite a competitive team and the discussions have been how can we get positive results.

Suryakumar Yadav: We were looking to bat first. The wicket looks nice, better than the practice wicket and we will try to put runs on the board. The guys in the dressing room have made my job easier, the fearless approach they play with for their respective franchises and have brought the same approach to the team.

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Aiden Markram (capt), 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 David Miller, 6 Partrick Kruger, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Simelane, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Nqabayomzi Peter

4:30pm It's time for the toss. Aiden Markram and Suryakumar Yadav exchange their team sheets and are ready for the coin to go up. Markram gives it a spin. Tails is the call but heads it is. South Africa will bowl first. Markram says it looks a good wicket and if there is some moisture in the surface, they want to use it up first. Rain is also a factor. Reckons it is a fantastic opportunity for some of his teammates to make their debuts in front of South African fans. Adds that they are not really talking about the IPL auction much and that they are treating that as a bonus.

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Aiden Markram (capt), 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 David Miller, 6 Partrick Kruger, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Simelane, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Nqabayomzi Peter

So, no debutants for India, with Ramandeep Singh missing out. They are going in with six proper bowling options, with Abhishek and Tilak also capable of rolling their arm over. South Africa, on the other hand, have handed a debut to Simelane, a 21-year-old all-rounder who plays for the Dolphins. Reeza Hendricks, who would have ordinarily opened, is not a part of the eleven due to illness.

Harshit: "Why is Riyan Parag not in the squad?" -- He is nursing a shoulder injury and hence is not a part of this squad.

Sowmya : "The exuberance of Indian youth v the experience of the mighty proteas. What a series ahead!"

Excited to see Varun' s bowling.

Deep: "Who is coaching the Indian t20 side now? GG must be with the test side prepping for BGT" -- VVS Laxman was named as India's stand-in head coach for this tour.