Former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra questioned the absence of Shreyas Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi from India’s playing XI for the second T20I against South Africa in Gqeberha on Tuesday (December 12).

Iyer was not included in the XI even though he was the designated vice-captain in the preceding home series against Australia. The right-hander featured in the last two games of the five-T20I series versus Australia and registered scores of 8 (7 balls) and 53 (37 balls).

On the other hand, Bishoni was left out of the playing XI despite winning the Player-of-the-Series award against Australia. The leg-spinner had finished the series with nine wickets to his name.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Chopra wrote: “Any news on Iyer and Bishnoi’s availability?? Iyer was VC in the last series. And Bishnoi was the player of the series. I seemed to have missed something??”

Coming to the second T20I, South Africa defeated India by five wickets (DLS method) to take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.

Riding on Rinku Singh’s 68* off 39 balls and skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s 56 off 36 balls, the visitors post 180/7 on the board. India’s innings couldn’t be completed as the rain stopped play with three balls remaining.

Chasing the revised target of 152 in 15 overs, the Proteas got over the finishing line with seven deliveries to spare. Reeza Hendricks was the top-scorer for South Africa with 49 runs off just 27 balls while skipper Aiden Markram played a brilliant knock of 30 in 17 balls.