India's captain KL Rahul, right, flips coin for the toss as South Africa's captain Aiden Markram looks on during the first One Day International match between India and South Africa in Ranchi, India, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)Associated PressSun, November 30, 2025 at 8:09 AM UTC·1 min readRANCHI, India (AP) — South Africa won the toss and elected to field in the first one-day international cricket match against India on Sunday.
India, which lost its 19th consecutive toss, will be led by Lokesh Rahul in the absence of injured Shubman Gill and also includes white-ball stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSouth Africa stand-in captain Aiden Markram said he expected dew later in the night which encouraged him to field first after winning the toss.
The Proteas have rested regular skipper Temba Bavuma and left-arm spinner Keshav Mahraj for the opening game of the three-match series after both played in South Africa’s 2-0 victory in the test series against India.
Prenelan Subrayen is the only specialist spinner in the playing XI as the visitors chose to go with four seamers to challenge the strong Indian batting line-up.
Rahul said he would have bowled too had he won the toss after he saw dew during the evening practice sessions at the ground.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIndia has opted to go with three spinners – Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav – with Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana as three quick bowlers.
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Line-ups:
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, Lokesh Rahul (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock, 4 Matthew Breetzke, Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Prenelan Subrayen, Nandre Burger, Ottneil Baartman
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
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