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India vs South Africa: Opening combination, choice of spinners - 3 selection conundrums facing India ahead of 1st ODI

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Mar 11, 2020 03:32 PM IST

India were blanked in the ODI series in New Zealand and hence, now have their task cut out to find the winning combination and get back to winning ways.

South Africa are back in India, this time for the ODI series and after having mixed results in the T20I and Test series, the side would look to stamp their authority in the upcoming series. They are coming on the back of a superb series win against Australia at home and would look to continue their impressive performance against India. The hosts, on the other hand, were blanked in the ODI series in New Zealand and hence, now have their task cut out to find the winning combination and get back to winning ways.

For starters, they need to figure out the perfect combination for the 1st ODI in Dharamsala and there are a number of spots which would need deliberation.

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Who will be the openers?

Shikhar Dhawan is back in the mix and hence, he should be one of the openers. However, who will accompany him at the top of the order will be the big conundrum facing the management, Prithvi Shaw looked good but did not manage any big score against New Zealand and hence, this could prompt the management to give Shubman Gill the nod.

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The pace attack

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back in the mix, but so is Hardik Pandya. This will give the management plenty to think ahead of the 1st ODI. Hardik Pandya’s workload will be under the scanner and whether or not, he completes his quota remains to be seen. Navdeep Saini and Jasprit Bumrah should be the other pacers in the squad and depending on how confident Kohli is about Hardik’s role as a seam bowler, he could make a decision about Bhuvneshwar.

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The spinners?

Dharamsala has not been too kind to the spinners and in the recent past, India have played with either Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal as the sole wrist spinner. Which way will Kohli look in the first ODI remains to be seen. Kuldeep’s wicket-taking abilities have faded away and this should give Kohli the confidence to include Yuzvendra Chahal in the mix. There is Ravindra Jadeja who will be another key element of this bowling attack and hence, Kohli could opt for the leggie.

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