Why Kagiso Rabada not playing today: The visiting team has made three changes to its Playing XI for this match.
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During the fourth T20I of the ongoing South Africa’s tour of India in Rajkot, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has won the toss and chose to bowl for the fourth consecutive time in the series.
“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,” Bavuma told Star Sports at the toss.
Having lost his fourth toss in a row, India captain Rishabh Pant admitted that he was looking to bowl first as well at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium tonight.
“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,” Pant told Star Sports at the toss.
Why is Kagiso Rabada not playing vs India today?
As far as the changes to their Playing XI are concerned, South Africa have made a total of three changes bringing in wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock and fast bowlers Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi in place of batter Reeza Hendricks and fast bowlers Wayne Parnell and Kagiso Rabada.
While de Kock recovering from a hand injury is a welcoming development for the visitors, they might miss their two new injured players in Parnell and Rabada.
“We have couple of forced changes – [Kagiso] Rabada and [Wayne] Parnell miss out due to injuries. Reeza Hendricks also misses out. Quinton de Kock has recovered and is back. Marco Jansen and [Lungi] Ngidi coming in,” Bavuma said without revealing the nature of injuries to Parnell and Rabada.
India, on the contrary, have opted to stick with the same Playing XI for the fourth time in a row in this series.
