🏏SA vs India, 1st ODI: At New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg 🏏

🏏South Africa vs India, 1st ODI: At New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 17/12/2023 at 1:30 PM IST 🏏

India, South Africa move on from World Cup heartbreak as Wanderers turn pink

Sandwiched between a T20I series in a T20 World Cup year and a Test series, the ODI series will see teams missing several big names

A month ago, South Africa and India lost ODIs that may have felt like the most pivotal matches of their lives. On Sunday, they will return to the format for the first time since Kolkata and Ahmedabad, and things will feel a lot less life-or-death.

This ODI series is sandwiched between a T20I series in a T20 World Cup year and a Test series, and will for that reason miss a large number of household names. It will feature, instead, a cast of characters of whom many won't be too well known outside their home countries. South Africa's squad includes five players who have played ten or fewer ODIs, and India's as many as nine.

The series will give these players a chance to make selectors' lives a little more difficult the next time they sit down to pick a squad for a higher-profile series. This isn't to say that this one lacks profile entirely - the Wanderers will turn pink on Sunday for breast-cancer awareness, and a sellout crowd is expected to pack the stands.

South Africa vs India Pitch Report

The surface at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg will likely have a lot to offer to the bowlers. The average first innings total in the last five matches has been 210 runs. The team winning the toss might look to bowl. The teams batting first have managed to score more than 300 runs only thrice in the last 10 50-over matches at this venue.

South Africa vs India Weather Report

The weather will likely remain cloudy at the start of the match and will become sunny as the match reaches the second half. The temperature might remain over 20 degrees throughout the match.

Pitch and conditions

The Wanderers is usually a high-scoring ODI venue thanks to its true bounce and the rarefied Highveld atmosphere. Three of the last four games here have produced 300-plus first-innings totals. A largely clear day is expected in Johannesburg, with temperatures in the high 20s (Celsius).

Team news:

South Africa:

With Temba Bavuma, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee and Kagiso Rabada not involved, opportunities will open for others. Tony de Zorzi and Nandre Burger - who would make his debut in the format - could be among the beneficiaries.

Possible XI: Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams

India:

Ruturaj Gaikwad has a fever and could be ruled out of Sunday's game. Deepak Chahar is out of the series because of what a BCCI release called a "family medical emergency". He has been replaced in the squad by Akash Deep. Shreyas Iyer will be withdrawn after Sunday to prepare for the Tests.

Possible XI: Rajat Patidar, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (capt), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan

Stats and trivia

• The last three ODI series South Africa have hosted against India have all turned out one-sided. South Africa won 2-0 and 3-0 in 2013-14 and 2021-22, and in between India won 5-1 when they visited in 2017-18.
• Kuldeep Yadav (17 wickets at 13.88) and Yuzvendra Chahal (18 at 22.72) have terrific ODI records in South Africa.
• Shubman Gill, who has been rested to help him prepare for the Test series, has lost a chance to claim a coveted ODI record. He ends 2023 with 1584 ODI runs at an average of 63.36. Three more innings may have given him an outside chance to go past Sachin Tendulkar's record tally of 1894 from 1998.

In the spotlight

With Quinton de Kock retired from ODIs, Reeza Hendricks is set to enjoy an unbroken run of games at the top of the order. He will want to make full use of that chance, though. While he has been in tremendous form in T20Is - he has scored seven fifties in his last 13 innings in the format - he has been less assured in ODIs so far, averaging under 30 after 31 innings. A 75-ball 85 against England during the World Cup showed just how gifted he is, but he still needs to show he can be consistent as well as eye-catching in the 50-overs format.

KL Rahul didn't feature in the T20I series, and he will want to remind the selectors of what he is capable of in that format, with a T20 World Cup on the horizon. He has been out of India's recent Test XIs, but he is in their squad, auditioning for a role - keeper-batter - that he's only played once in a first-class game. It's pretty much on point for Rahul's career that he is captaining India in the middle-length format while trying to stake his claim in the shortest and longest ones.

Quotes

"It's never nice to exit a World Cup like that. I thought we had something really good going and that does filter into this team - from the good side of things. I would say most guys are over it. The nature of cricket nowadays is the schedule is so hectic you are almost forced to move on as quickly as possible so we are pretty much past it and looking forward to the series."

South Africa captain Aiden Markram on the scars from the World Cup semi-final exit

When: December 17, 2023; 10am Local Time (1.30pm IST)

Where: The Wanderers, Johannesburg

What to expect: A hot day with a 40% forecast for thunderstorms. That and another expected storm on Saturday - this one given a 48% chance - could add zip to the pitch. But, thanks to excellent drainage, the cosy outfield will be fast.

Batters To Watch(recent stats)

Rassie van der Dussen, SA

10 M • 448 Runs • 49.78 Avg • 84.52 SR

Aiden Markram, SA

10 M • 406 Runs • 45.11 Avg • 110.92 SR

Shreyas Iyer, IND

10 M • 530 Runs • 75.71 Avg • 113.97 SR

KL Rahul, IND

10 M • 355 Runs • 59.17 Avg • 92.68 SR

Bowlers to watch:

Keshav Maharaj, SA

10 M • 15 Wkts • 4.16 Econ • 35.6 SR

Tabraiz Shamsi, SA

4 M • 9 Wkts • 5.6 Econ • 25.22 SR

Kuldeep Yadav, IND

10 M • 13 Wkts • 4.49 Econ • 39.3 SR

Thanks for the tag, Raji!

South Africa and India will play their first ODIs since the men's World Cup at the Wanderers on Sunday, a fact they will no doubt want to use to draw a line under their exits from the tournament. And with a T20I World Cup just more than six months way, they may get away with doing so more quietly than usual in what could be relatively low key ODI rubber.

That said, quiet matches involving India have yet to be played. The focus is always sharper when they are around, for reasons that go beyond cricket. So besides anything else the result on Sunday, and in the other two games, will be taken as an indicator of whether or not a corner has been turned for the better.

Of the XIs in the sides' last World Cup games, six of South Africa's players are in the ODI squad compared to three of India's. That illustrates the difference in the depth available to these teams. It also tells us they aren't afraid to experiment.

Among the missing are Temba Bavuma and Rohit Sharma, World Cup captains both. As well as Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Shami, their teams' leading fast bowlers. And, of course, Quinton de Kock and Virat Kohli - batting icons of the age.

India will be happy to return on Sunday to the scene of their triumph on Friday, when they beat South Africa by 106 runs - the home side's third-heaviest defeat in their 169 concluded T20Is - to square the series. But, importantly, the visitors' champion in that match, Suryakumar Yadav, who hammered 100 off 56, has gone home.

T20Is are held up as a gauge for players' readiness to make the step up to other formats at international level. For instance, will Rinku Singh's 39-ball 68 not out in the second T20I at St George's Park on Tuesday earn him a crack on Sunday? But these ODIs could also offer insights the other way around. Might Tony de Zorzi - who has appeared in two Tests and as many ODIs but no T20Is - be able to use them to stake a claim as an all-format player going into the T20I World Cup?

Maybe these questions will be seen as inopportune. In the pressure-cooker world of big cricket, we should welcome the room to breathe that this series represents. We are days away from the Test series, weeks away from the SA20 and months away from the IPL. Things that would seem to matter more are ranged around this rubber like some of Joburg's finest thunderclouds around a patch of blue sky.

But, right here and right now, what matters is three ODIs that don't seem to matter. For some - perhaps those who want to watch cricket for cricket's sake for a change - that will matter most of all.