Rishabh Pant to lead India for the first time in international cricket.
Stand-in captain KL Rahul and spinner Kuldeep Yadav were ruled out of the series due to a groin strain and an injured right hand respectively. In Rahul’s stead, Rishabh Pant will be captaining the Men in Blue for the first time ever.
Ahead of the first encounter at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday, Chopra said that South Africa can win the match; 100% if they win the toss and even if they lose, he feels the match will be in favor of Proteas by 51:49.
“Earlier I was saying India will win this match, but now I am feeling South Africa can win this match. If South Africa wins the toss, they will win the match 100% but if India wins the toss, then also I feel 51-49 in favor of South Africa,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
He also predicted that Yuzvendra Chahal and Kagiso Rabada to be the ones to star with the ball with both having a successful IPL 2022. The Indian leg-spinner picked up 27 wickets to win the Purple Cap as the South African speedster Rabada got 23 scalps.
“Chahal and Rabada will take three or more wickets. Chahal bowls everywhere now. (Rishabh) Pant is the captain, so he might get him to bowl more towards the death. His numbers are good, whether it is against [David] Miller or Quinton de Kock. Kagiso Rabada - powerplay, death overs - I think he is going to get a couple of wickets," he said.
Aakash Chopra also said that he feels the Indian pair of Hardik Pandya and Shreyas Iyer will star for India with the bat as South Africa will have Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram to score the runs.
“Hardik and Shreyas will together score more than 65 runs. Rahul Dravid has said in the press conference that Hardik will play the finisher’s role but that doesn’t mean that he cannot bat up the order. Send Hardik in whenever a wicket falls after 10 overs. There will be bouncers and Tabraiz Shamsi’s leg-spin against Shreyas, he will be troubled a little.
Quinton de Kock and Markram will together score more than 65 runs. Markram will play spin a little cautiously and hit the pacers. Quinton de Kock is in very good form, knows this ground well, has scored good runs here and plays well against India. There is no bowler in this team other than Chahal who troubles him," Chopra added.
Aakash Chopra's India XI for the 1st T20I: Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda/Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan.
(News18 inputs)