Gill and Hardik Return as South Africa Choose to Bowl in First T20I

South African captain Aiden Markram, decided to bowl first, and there was predicted dew that was likely to influence the second half of the match. Suryakumar Yadav appeared unbothered by the situation, and he was willing to risk bowling a wet ball.

India welcomed back Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya into the playing XI after their absence due to injury. Jasprit Bumrah also came back, and he had been rested during the ODIs. With the combination reshuffled, T20I experts Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy, and Jitesh Sharma were all brought back.

This meant that Kuldeep Yadav was not selected, as India opted to go with only two frontline quicks. In place of Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh was chosen as the second seamer, allowing India to retain bowling depth.

South Africa made their team stronger by bringing back Anrich Nortje, David Miller, and Donovan Ferreira. Nortje was joined by Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi, and Marco Jansen in a four-pronged pace attack with Keshav Maharaj (the only specialist spinner).

India Playing XI:

1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Axar Patel, 9 Varun Chakravarthy, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

South Africa Playing XI:

1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Aiden Markram (capt), 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 David Miller, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Lutho Sipamla, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Lungi Ngidi