Rohit Sharma’s men are one of the form teams of this tournament so far and the only one side to have not experienced rain or defeat as yet. A tense win sealed by Virat Kohli, one ruthless defeat of a weaker side, and significant contributions from various places in the XI; their campaign so far bears the hallmarks of many recent sprints to the knockout phase of a world event. But they aren’t infallible yet. KL Rahul has had a slow start to the tournament and this has coincided with India’s off-paced starts to the PowerPlay. He’ll now be up against a fast bowling attack that would appear cherry-picked just for these kinds of surfaces.
India, with Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar won't be too far behind. These are two top T20 sides facing each other in bowler-friendly conditions where conventional wisdom would dictate that the team with better batting should prevail. However, on their day, both teams are inherently strong enough to beat any logic. These are two of the pre-tournament 'favourites' and the veracity of that tag will be overwhelmingly strengthened for the winner tomorrow.
When: India vs South Africa, ICC men's T20 World Cup 2022, October 30, 19:00 Local, 16:30 IST
Where: Optus Stadium, Perth
What to expect: A cloudy evening as per the met department, but there is no forecast for rain during the game time. The track at Perth has offered significant bounce but given India and South Africa will play on a used pitch and with teams batting first winning 13 of the 21 games here, don't be surprised if the toss-winning captain decides to strap his pads on right away, even though the average first innings total here is 133 and that chasing sides have won two of their three games here.
T20I Head to Head: India 13-9 South Africa. India also hold a 4-1 advantage in encounters at T20 World Cups.
Team Watch
India
Injured/Unavailable: India are choosing to wrap Hardik Pandya in cotton wool. The all-rounder bowled just one over against Netherlands and then was substituted on the field by Deepak Hooda. It is a workload management exercise and he should be available to play. India are unlikely to make any changes to their XI.
Tactics & Matchups:
South Africa are one of the sides with a string of left-handers and Ravichandran Ashwin, who warmed up with a brace against Netherlands, will be a big match-up advantage. He has 10 wickets from 9 matches against the Proteas at an economy of 6.81.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been similarly impressive (14 wickets from 11 matches at 6.80 ER) and has been a menace for South Africa in the PowerPlays where the Proteas have lost 17 wickets across seven innings against India this year.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
South Africa
Injured/Unavailable: All present and accounted for.
Tactics & Matchups:
South Africa are unlikely to play both their left-arm spinners against India unless dictated to by the used pitch. Part of the reason for that is down to how India played Tabraiz Shamsi in the two series leading into this World Cup. The left-arm legspinner conceded at an economy over 10 each time and the Proteas are likely to swap him out for an extra pacer. They will then have to toss up between Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen for that role. While Ngidi brings a good variety of cutters and slower balls, Jansen offers left-arm angle -- India's bug-bear -- as well as batting ability.
Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi/Lungi Ngidi/Marco Jansen
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