India and South Africa who had played just 100 days ago in a 5 match T20 series post the TATA IPL are back in action. The first game of 3 T20 matches which is being played at Kerala is seeing both the teams with a final chance to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 which is to be held in Australia.
India won the toss and elected to bowl first as they made a few changes to the team. the move was due to the green in the pitch that could aid fast bowlers. There is also a bit dew expected during the 2nd half of the game that could come to hamper the bowlers bowling 2nd.
Bumrah misses out –
India on winning the toss decided to field and this was the 3rd toss the Indian team had won. Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin came in to the team to replace Hardik Pandya. The absence of Bumrah was greeted with shock as he had just played the last two games for India. This was the 2nd time Bumrah had missed the 1st game of the series. Bumrah had missed the 1st game at Mohali against Australia.
BCCI clarifies the reason –
The Board of Control for Cricket in India took to twitter to state the reason why Bumrah was missing in action. The BCCI stated “Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain during India’s practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI medical assessed him. He is ruled out of the 1st #INDvSA T20I.
🚨 UPDATE 🚨
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 28, 2022
Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain during India's practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him. He is ruled out of the first #INDvSA T20I.#TeamIndia
Indian pacers decimate South Africa –
Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar had the South Africans dancing to their tunes with the new ball. The duo decimated the South African top order to leave them reeling at 14/5 at the time of writing. Arshdeep had picked 3 wickets while Chahar has picked 2. Aiden Markram is the only one providing some resistance to the Indian team.