India vs South Africa 3rd T20I: India eye batting revival against SA at Centurion

Indian batting struggles against South Africa in unfamiliar conditions at SuperSport Park, needing a resurgence in the third T20I.

Indian batting line-up needs to get its mojo back against a resurgent South Africa to regain the lost ground on rather unfamiliar SuperSport Park conditions when the two teams clash in the third T20I on Wednesday, November 12, 2024.

Since 2009, India has played only one T20I at this venue, which they lost by six wickets in 2018 and have only one survivor from that squad in this side — Hardik Pandya.

Along with that unfamiliarity factor, India will also grapple with the ordinary form of their batters, particularly when the pitch here is touted to be similar to the one at Gqeberha – quick and bouncy.

In the second T20I, India batters struggled against South African pacers upfront, getting restricted to 124 for six, and Centurion has similar characteristics.

The problem starts from the top – more precisely with Abhishek Sharma, whose extended lean run with the bat has now snowballed into a serious concern. He is in desperate need of a good outing here before the management thinks of juggling the combination.

Even now, they can think of giving the job of partnering Sanju Samson at the top to Tilak Varma and bringing in Ramandeep Singh in the middle to add more muscle to the unit.

However, senior batters like skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Pandya and Rinku Singh too cannot absolve themselves of the blame entirely for India's struggles.