India vs SA T20Is: Ashwin, Chahar, Pant & Arshdeep Play as India Elect to Bowl

India are playing South Africa in the T20 series-opener today.

(Photo: PTI)

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has won the toss and elected to field first in the T20I series-opener against South Africa being played at Thiruvananthapuram.

The hosts rested Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for this series while Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the game by the BCCI's medical team.

"Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain during India's practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him and he was then ruled out of the first game," the board said in a statement.

Yuzvendra Chahal too is not part of the playing XI with R Ashwin taking his spot. Rishabh Pant, Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar are the other three players to come in.

Mohammad Shami recovered from COVID and returned a negative test earlier today, after missing the Australia series, but it seems he is being given time to fully recover and has now been named in the playing XI.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.

South Africa: Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi.