India face S Africa in do-or-die

PTI

Ranchi, October 8

Deepak Chahar’s unavailability due to an ankle injury will complicate India’s selection process as the hosts look for an improved bowling performance in the must-win second ODI against South Africa here tomorrow.

With the T20 World Cup beginning later this month in Australia, this bilateral ODI series completely lacks context. While all eyes are on Rohit Sharma and Co., who have already landed in Perth for their World Cup warm-up matches, the three-match ODI series offers little incentive to the fringe players who have missed the flight to Australia. But with Chahar injuring his ankle ahead of the first ODI in Lucknow and his back troubling him again, India have plenty of soul-searching to do. Mohammad Siraj and Avesh Khan have failed to impress so far, and that might open the door for the uncapped West Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar.

On the batting front, it will be important for Shreyas Iyer to score some runs as the top-order batter is among the reserves for the T20 World Cup. Iyer, the vice-captain for this series, bailed India out of a top-order collapse on Thursday.