South Africa captain Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the first of three ODIs at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday.
The Proteas are playing with two spinners and handed a debut to Nandre Burger for the series opener. The home team will be playing this game in their pink jerseys to create awareness on breast cancer.
South Africa (Playing XI): Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Tabraiz Shamsi.
India Playing XI
Team India meanwhile, have picked debutant Sai Sudharsan in their playing XI while Sanju Samson gets a game for the Men in Blue. Rinku Singh will have to wait a bit longer for his ODI debut.
Sudharsan is likely to come in at No. 3 in the batting order as Rahul is slated to open with Ruturaj Gaikwad. Shreyas Iyer will be released from the ODI squad after this match as he will join the Test squad for the two-match series starting December 26.
"Looking forward to a cracker of a game. There was a of spin and it was try, we'll try to put pressure on them. Sai Sudharsan is on debut today. There are a few names that have played a lot of IPL cricket.
"Ruturaj did well, Tilak seems exciting, Sanju is always exciting. We've got Axar, Kuldeep who'd love to see some spin. They know what pressure is and how to handle it. They all come with IPL experience, hopefully that helps them here and they can perform to the best of their ability," India's stand-in skipper Rahul said at the toss.
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar.
