Can Abhishek Sharma withstand the pressure and hold onto his spot? India vs South Africa 2nd T20I probable line-ups scrutinized

With the batting line-up firing on all cylinders and the bowling combination also working in perfect harmony to stifle South Africa's formidable middle order, everything fell into place for Team India. Meanwhile, questions will undoubtedly be raised for Aiden Markram and his team after their crushing defeat in Durban. The pressure will be on them to rectify their mistakes in Gqeberha, a venue expected to provide a pitch similar to Kingsmead, with weather conditions likely to play a crucial role once again.

India can be expected to persist with the same team with no changes as they try to seal a positive series result at St. George’s Park. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether Abhishek Sharma, who is going through a rough patch, manages to retain his place in the XI for the second match. The other question might be whether or not to hand a debut to Vijaykumar Vyshak, or potentially bring in Ramandeep Singh. However, expect India to stick with the winning combination which they have done in the last few T20Is.

On the South African front, the batting will be expected to click sooner rather than later. Their bowling will be a bigger concern, with most bowlers bleeding runs at Kingsmead. It will be interesting to see if they persist with Nqaba Peter, whose spin was taken apart by Sanju Samson, or if they choose to use the part-time spin of Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs to a greater degree and boost their batting.

However, South Africa are also likely to not change too many things around, with execution being a greater factor in their heavy loss than preparation. One change they may look to make is bringing Donovan Ferreira, who can be a useful spinner, for medium-pacer Patrick Kruger. Nevertheless, their middle order clicking into gear will be the key for South Africa’s success.

Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi

Aiden Markram (c), Ryan Rickleton, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Patrick Kruger/Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Ottneil Baartman, Nqabayomzi Peter