Pride at stake for India in third ODI vs SA

India will look to avoid a cleansweep when it faces South Africa in the third and final One-Day International at Newlands, Cape Town, on Sunday.

K. L. Rahul (left) will hope to be back among the runs in the third ODI.

India will look to avoid a cleansweep when it faces South Africa in the third and final One-Day International at Newlands, Cape Town, on Sunday.

India’s strategy in the ODI series so far has looked completely out of sync with the requirements of modern-day white-ball game, batters failing to keep the momentum going in the middle overs and the bowlers, barring Jasprit Bumrah, appearing innocuous.

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India has only been able to pick up seven wickets in the two ODIs - four in the first game and three in the second.

Pace and bounce

With R. Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar failing to make an impact, it needs to be seen whether head coach Rahul Dravid chooses to try out Jayant Yadav and Deepak Chahar for the contest on Sunday. The first two games were played on a Boland Park strip that didn’t have a lot of pace and bounce and even captain K. L. Rahul admitted that conditions were more similar to what the Indian team gets back home. At Newlands, however, there will be more pace and bounce.

Rahul hasn’t scored many runs on this tour after his match-winning century in the first Test, and he will want to come back into form. The two Iyers - Shreyas and Venkatesh - haven’t yet set the stage on fire and the main problem has been their inability to force the pace in the middle overs. They will want to score more rapidly during this period.

In all, a massive improvement on all fronts is required in order for the Indian team to be competitive.

• India: K. L. Rahul (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Jayant Yadav, Navdeep Saini.
• South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Keshav Maharaj, Quinton de Kock (wk), Zubayr Hamza, Marco Jansen, Janneman Malan, Sisanda Magala, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne.
• Match starts 2 PM IST.