Same curse! 38th captain, 8th toss lost: Rishabh Pant continues Indian team’s woes | Cricket News
NEW DELHI: India’s streak of unfavorable tossing continued as new Test captain Rishabh Pant lost the toss to South Africa’s Temba Bavuma at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday, in the city’s inaugural Test. South Africa opted to bat first on the red dirt pitch, meant to favor the batters early before helping the spinners.Pant made history as India’s 38th Test captain and the first wicketkeeper-batsman to lead the team since MS Dhoni.India have now lost eight of their last nine tosses, underlining their recent misfortune with the toss. Shubman Gill, sidelined due to a neck injury, had lost all five tosses during India’s series in England earlier this year. Despite this, Gill managed a 2-2 draw in his first series as Test captain. His only successful toss came against the West Indies in Delhi in October. In Kolkata last week, he lost another crucial toss and India failed to chase down 124 on a tricky pitch with uneven bounce.“We think the wicket is good for the batters. But at the same time, bowling first is also not a bad option,” Pant said, downplaying the importance of the toss.India made two changes to their line-up, bringing in Sai Sudharsan for Axar Patel and Nitish Kumar Reddy for Shubman Gill. The management has opted to back Nitish, while Sai Sudharsan, previously left out in Kolkata, returns to the third row in place of Washington Sundar.
South Africa also made one change, replacing bowler Corbin Bosch with spin-bowling all-rounder Senuran Muthusamy, giving them three spinners ahead of the latter stages of the match.Teams:South Africa (Game XI): Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (c), Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (w), Marco Jansen, Senuran Muthusamy, Simon Harmer, Keshav MaharajIndia (Game XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant (with), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
