4th T20I: Quinton de Kock back for South Africa vs India

Star opener Quinton de Kock, who had missed the second and third T20I with an hand injury, was recalled into the South African side for the fourth game at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot on Friday. Temba Bavuma and co lead the five-match series against India 2-1. 

South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl. 

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With a series win at stake, South Africa have managed to bring their best back. QDK will open with skipper Bavuma. Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell have been ruled out with injuries and Hendricks misses out too. Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi have been called in the playing 11. 

“We are going to have a bowl. To be honest we are not sure how the wicket is going to play, not much stats behind it. But we are chasing well and backing our strength. We have heard it is quite a good wicket and the scores were high in the domestic games. Par score is about 180 and we are hoping the wicket gets better. We have couple of forced changes; Rabada and Parnell miss out due to injuries, Reeza Hendricks also misses out, Quinton de Kock has recovered and is back, Marco Jansen and Ngidi coming in. Hopefully we have lot more (runs) coming from the top and the guys keep going in the middle,” Bavuma said at the toss. 

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His Indian counterpart, who will have to win the match to keep the series alive, said that he will be fielding the same side. 

“We were looking to bowl first. The only thing we are focusing on is our process and are not thinking this is a must-win game. We are trying to increase our run rate in the middle overs and that’s what we are trying to achieve as a team. We are playing with the same team,” Rishabh Pant said. 

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Teams:

India (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan

South Africa (Playing XI): Temba Bavuma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi, Anrich Nortje