SA captain revealed this during the toss, which he won and chose to bowl first in Delhi.
Markram, who was a part of the recently concluded Indian Premier League, was unavailable for selection for the series opener of the five-match series, revealed captain Temba Bavuma at the toss. He had cleared the first round of testing along with the rest of the South African squad last week after arriving on June 2.
In Markram’s place, South Africa handed a debut to Tristan Stubbs, while Wayne Parnell also made his comeback into the XI.
“Aiden was not available for selection as he tested positive for Covid, Stubbs comes in and it is a debut for him,” Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma said at the toss.
As for India, Rishabh Pant made his captaincy debut, while Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik made their comebacks into the Indian XI.
(PTI inputs)