India will take on South Africa in the second of the two-match Test series. This article provides details about India’s Playing 11 vs South Africa for the second match of the series.
India Playing XI vs South Africa- 2nd Test, South Africa Tour of India 2025:
Openers: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul
India will have no option other than winning when they go head-to-head against South Africa in the final game of the ongoing two-match Test series if they want to avoid their second series loss at home in the last three outings.
The hosts would be disappointed by the way the team’s batting lineup performed in the previous match and would want to get things right in the upcoming match.
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A major concern for the team going into the second Test would be the fitness of Shuman Gill, who had to retire after playing just a few balls in the first innings of the previous match and didn’t take part in the rest of the game.
If Shubman is not able to recover in time for the next game, wicketkeeper batter and vice captain Rishabh Pant will take over the captaincy duties.
Gill’s absence would also mean that the team management will have to make a change in the batting lineup, with Sai Sudharshan coming in to replace the captain.
Having said that, the hosts would hope that Gill recovers in time for the series decider, as his absence would be a huge blow to India’s chances of winning the match, taking into consideration the form of the top seven batters.
The home team is otherwise expected to go in with an unchanged batting lineup, with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the batting.
Both batters will have to take the responsibility individually and as a pair to get the tea off to a good start and make things easy for the middle order, which wasn’t the case in the opening match.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant (c and wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy
As far as the makeup of India’s middle order is concerned, it relies on Rishabh Pant as he is one of the most experienced batters in the top five, and with Gill’s unavailability, the onus increases manifold on Pant.
It would be interesting to see if the team management backs Washington Sundar, who batted at that particular position in the series opener and looked good before getting out, or ropes in Sai Sudhardhan, who fulfilled the role in the last series.
The batting lineup will have a good chance of posting a big score on the board if the top four batters click with the depth the team has in its batting lineup, which comprises two keepers, Pant and Jurel, and as many all-rounders in Jadeja and Nitish.
However, a lot will depend on how the pitch behaves, as there is no hiding from the fact that the batters have struggled to score runs on spin-friendly tracks.
Following which, a big question arises: will India stick with their plan of playing on such tracks, given that it backfired in Kolkata, or dish out a sporting wicket for the final game of the series?
Bowlers: Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
Like the batting, the team’s bowling is also in search of a few answers following the shocking defeat in the previous match.
One of those questions is whether India’s combination of going in with four spinners in Kolkata was the right one or the home team played one spinner too many, given that Washington Sundar hardly bowled in the match.
If we look at the last few Test matches since Gautam Gambhir became India’s coach, Washington has been backed a lot but hasn’t been given enough chances to showcase his skills with the ball.
It might be a wise thing to give him more chances to have his say with the ball if the team management decides to stick with the same bowling attack, with Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel being the other three spinners.
The fast bowling department of the team will be handled by Jasprit Bumrah, who was the pick of the bowlers in the first innings, courtesy of a five-wicket haul, and Mohammed Siraj, who cleaned up the tail in the second innings.
