Team India is on a tour of South Africa and is involved in the three-match T20I series as wel. The two teams will face in three ODIs before the focus shifts to the two-match Test series. On the sidelines of this tour, India A is also playing against South Africa A in the rainbow nation and is currently playing the first unofficial Test at the Senwes Park in Potchefstroom.
After opting to bowl first, India A bundled out the opposition for 319 runs in the first innings. It was a good comeback from the visiting side as South Africa A were sitting pretty at 215/3 at one stage with Jean du Plessis and Rubin Hermann scoring 106 and 95 runs respectively. But the comeback was orchestrated by pace bowler Prasidh Krishna who took a sensational hattrick as the opposition lost their last three wickets without adding a single run.
He castled Kurtlyn Mannikam and Siya Plaatjie on the last two balls of 97th over of the innings and then came back for his next over and disturbed the timber of Odirile Modimokoane off the first ball of the innings itself. He also ended with the stunning five-wicket haul in the innings conceding only 43 runs in 18.1 overs.
The performance comes close on the heels of the two-match Test series against South Africa starting from December 26. With Mohammed Shami still recovering from his ankle injury, there are chances that India might look at Prasidh Krishna now to replace if he doesn't get fit in time. The only other pace bowler in the squad is Mukesh Kumar who is currently featuring in the T20I series. Shami has picked on conditional basis for now but even if he misses out, Krishna seems ready to roar on the bouncy pitches in South Africa.
India squad for South Africa Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna
