Hardik Pandya during practice at Cuttack
The men in blue are all set to take on South Africa in a bid to level the 5-match T20 series after a horror game in Delhi.
The first T20 was one of the most surprising losses for India in a recent while. After putting on a monstrous 211 on board, no one would have expected India to lose, let alone lose by seven wickets and five balls remaining.
Anyways, the match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium is behind us, and the team looks ready to bounce back in Cuttack. One of the biggest questions heading into the 2nd T20 is if India will look to make some changes in their eleven.
South Africa seems to have done their homework as far as Harshal Patel is concerned. They used the crease pretty well to counter his dipping slower balls and yorkers. Even Avesh Khan was taken to the cleaners with ease.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the old guards and a sure-shot player in the first 11 when Indian goes to play the World Cup down-under. So, the team can look to bring in Arshdeep Singh or Umran Malik. As far as the batting is concerned, it looked pretty good in the first T20, with most batsmen chipping in with useful contributions.
India Probable Playing 11
Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel/Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan/Umran Malik
According to reports, when the tickets were made available offline, a mob gathered around the ticket counters in huge numbers. There were only 20,000 tickets that were to be sold, but the audiences were more than double in number. And the crowd had to be controlled by police interference.
A day before the second match the stadium was filled with Team India's supporters. During the Rishabh-Pant-led teams' practice, the number of supporters seen proves the enthusiasm in spectators.
BCCI posted pictures of the stadium during practice:
