IND vs SA 1st T20I Playing 11: Suryakumar Yadav-led India will square off against Aiden Markram-led South Africa in the 1st T20I match on December 09 at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack.

With South Africa securing a 2-0 clean sweep in the test series against India, the hosts secured a 2-1 win in the recently concluded ODI series.

The T20I series will serve as preparations for the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 which is set to begin on February.

India and South Africa has played 31 T20I series where India has advantage with 18 wins while Proteas men has 12 wins.

South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl. Speaking on toss, Aiden Markram said, “We’re going to bowl first. Expecting conditions to be good here in India. Quite a bit of dew around, might be a constant throughout the game but might get a bit worse later.”

(Quick turnaround time between formats) “It’s the way things work, lot of the games end up playing in the mind, need to get yourself in the right frame of mind. Fantastic build-up to the World Cup.”

“From a conditions point of view, it’s going to be great. You can’t simulate these, certainly not back in South Africa, so that’s a massive thing. And then obviously testing yourself against one of the better outfits in the world.”

“Looking forward to that, seeing where we are. And we’ve got another couple of months after this to fine-tune things and hopefully be ready for that World Cup.”

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav said, “That’s okay. I mean, we were a little confused looking at the wicket. Yesterday it was looking a little more greener, but today we were a little confused. But it’s okay, we’re happy to bat first.”

“It gives a good challenge to put runs on the board and come out here and defend. I mean, see, it (dew factor) becomes a little challenging for the bowlers – you can’t run away from the fact. But going from here on, I think that’s going to remain for a really long time. It has been there for a very long time.”

“So if we keep focusing on that, I think the main job will be in trouble in doing that. But yeah, let’s not think about it and have it as a challenge. We had a good series in Australia.”

“Now we play five T20s against South Africa and then we play against New Zealand, so 15 good T20s. I think it’s good preparation. Same thing what we’ve been doing in the last few series: be fearless, enjoy the game, and be at it for the next three hours.”

“It (selection) is a very good headache to have. But I’ll tell you the guys who are missing out: Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana.”

IND vs SA 1st T20I Playing 11

India Playing 11: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

South Africa Playing 11: Quinton of Cock (), Aiden Markrams, Stubbs, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Marco, Mount, Lungi, Lungi, Anrich North.