India vs South Africa, India vs South Africa 2020, Today Match Prediction 12 Mar 2020

ind vs sa Match Prediction & Analysis

After a disappointing tour of New Zealand, Team India has returned home and will now be hosting South Africa for a 3-match ODI series.

While India is definitely strong at home, they would be wary of this South African side who is coming off a 3-0 clean sweep of Australia recently. The Indian players must be exhausted after that long tour and it remains to be seen how they cope with this new challenge. Thankfully, they will have some fresh additions to their ranks. India has dominated South Africa in limited-overs cricket in recent times and that trend should continue in this series too.

TEAMS PREVIEW

India Preview

The Indian squad for the ODI series has seen the return of Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Shikhar Dhawan. All three are expected to play a vital part in the series, especially Pandya. The Indian all-rounder is returning to international cricket after a long hiatus because of injury and his presence down the order as a batsman will be a big boost to the team.

Young opener Shubman Gill has been added to the squad and it will be exciting if he gets a chance. Captain Virat Kohli, who was horribly and strangely out of touch in the New Zealand tour, will be eager to assert himself in this series. KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, and Shreyas Iyer would be the other batsmen to watch out for.

On the bowling front, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's experience will be a boon to the bowling side which was struggling in New Zealand. Jasprit Bumrah and Navdeep Saini will be the other two fast bowlers looking to make an impact. Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal should be two spinners and both have the ability to excel in these conditions. Chahal, especially, has a great record against South Africa - 20 wickets in 7 ODIs - and had figures of 4-51 against them the last time the two sides met at the 2019 ODI World Cup in England.

India Predicted Playing XI:

Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini

South Africa Preview

South Africa will be fairly confident of its chances on this tour. That 3-0 victory against Australia at home was a big boost to the side's confidence and will hold them in good stead, at least before the start of the tour. Taking on India in their own backyard, however, won't be easy at all.

Captain Quinton de Kock, who has been in a fantastic limited-overs form of late, is expected to lead the batting team from the front. The experience of Temba Bavuma, David Miller and Faf du Plessis will also be quite useful. However, the one batsman to really watch out for will be Heinrich Klaasen who is fresh from his maiden ODI ton against Australia and possesses the ability to take the game away from the opposition with his hard-hitting.

South Africa, though, has an inexperienced bowling attack for this series as Kagiso Rabada unavailable because of a groin strain and leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi is skipping the tour for personal reasons. Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks and Anrich Nortje are the four seamers in the squad along with spinners George Linde and Keshav Maharaj. Barring Ngidi, the others don't really have an experience of playing on Indian surfaces and that is where they might suffer.

South Africa Predicted Playing XI:

Quinton de Kock (capt, wk), Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala is one of the rare grounds in India that helps seam bowlers. They should get good bounce and movement in the air and batting wouldn't be easy early on. However, if batsmen can stay in, they will enjoy the bounce later on to score runs. Some rain is expected in Dharamsala on the day of the match and we could have a truncated game.

Venue Details

The highest total achieved Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala is 330-6 by India against the West Indies back in 2014. For this game, the team batting first would be targeting a total of 270-280 runs to have an edge.

Toss: To Bat

The team winning the toss will be looking to bat first as dew shouldn't be an issue right now and a healthy score can be on the cards first up.