It was a sight to behold when Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant came out for the toss for the first time in front of his home crowd. South Africa won the toss and put India to bat in the first T20I which is being played in Feroz Shah Kotla.
"I think the surface is good and it will be interesting to bat first. I would have bowled first too if I had won the toss. This indeed is the proudest moment in my cricketing career so far as I am getting this honor of leading the national side at Delhi. A huge thank you to everyone for giving me this opportunity. We know our XI but we are assigning different roles to players just to see how they cope with that going forward", Pant quoted after the toss.
Pant has played 43 T20Is, and scored 683 runs, with three fifties to his name. The numbers are far from great according to Pant's stature, but the thing that worries a lot more is his strike rate, which stands at a meager 125. In the 2022 edition of the league, Pant's strike rate was close to 153 - a massive improvement over his international and past seasons' numbers. It's not that he isn't capable to do so, he is.
South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan
