India have fielded the same side that lost the first ODI against South Africa as the visitors look to level the three-match series 1-1 at Paarl’s Boland Park on Friday. India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul won the toss and elected to bat. 

Speaking at the toss, Rahul said the team has learnt its mistakes from the first game, saying the one thing lacking was a partnership in the middle overs. 

“I think it’s pretty straightforward, second game on the same strip and important to put runs on the board and guessing the wicket will get slower later on. In the middle overs we couldn’t get the partnerships going and that’s the learning from the last game, hopefully we can go out there today and show better performance,” Rahul said at the toss. 

“The batters themselves realized that’s where it went wrong, we will learn from it and we have spoken about it. We are playing the same team,” he added. 

Meanwhile, South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma said he would have also liked to bat first. However, he said there would be an opportunity to put India under pressure with a few early wickets in the first hour, when the ball will be swinging and nipping. 

Bavuma scored a century and shared a 202-run partnership with Rassie van der Dussen for the fourth wicket in the first ODI. But he said he would not describe it as the “perfect game”. 

“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect game, but I will take that result. It’s just to get better from last game and try and find a way to improve and we have a better understanding of the wicket and what type of skills that we need, so just make sure we are on point in terms of that,” Bavuma said. 

He also confirmed Marco Jansen has been rested, given his “big workload” in the Test series, adding Sisanda Magala has come in as his replacement. 

Playing XIs:

South Africa: Quinton de Kock (w), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma (c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Sisanda Magala, Tabraiz Shamsi

India: KL Rahul (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal