Centurion: A buoyant India will look to cash in on South Africa’s injury woes, compounded by the loss of captain Faf du Plessis, when the two sides meet in the second ODI here on Sunday.
The visitors won their first-ever ODI against South Africa at Durban on Thursday by six wickets and took a 1-0 lead in the six-match series.
That defeat ended the Proteas’ 17-match unbeaten run on home soil stretching back to February 2016, when they had lost to England at Port Elizabeth.
In the aftermath of the Durban defeat, South Africa have lost skipper du Plessis to a finger injury. He had suffered a blow during the first ODI and later scans revealed that he had suffered a fracture, thus ruling him out for three to six weeks. He will miss the remainder of the ODI series as well as the entire T20I series against India as well.
This was on top of AB de Villiers? finger injury, sustained during the third Test at Wanderers, but he was only ruled out of the first three ODIs.
Even so, the hosts will be very demoralised with this turn of events, especially since they need to fight back to avoid going 2-0 down so early in this contest.
Batsman Farhaan Behardien has been recalled to the ODI squad, after he was left out initially in favour of Khayelihle Zondo as part of their preparation for the 2019 World Cup.
While Zondo didn’t play at Durban, it is anticipated that he will continue to sit out, as Behardien will walk into the playing eleven given the circumstances. The latter had last featured against Bangladesh in October 2017. Wicket-keeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen, who finished the third highest run-getter in South Africa?s domestic one-day tournament, has also been drafted as backup for Quinton de Kock.
The latter has been struggling for form, and scored a patchy 34 off 49 balls in the first game. It is tough to envisage that de Kock will be dropped just yet, but Klaasen’s inclusion ought to send him a signal.
