By Pritha Sarkar
KOLKATA (Reuters) – India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first against South Africa in their eagerly anticipated World Cup match at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Both teams have already qualified for the semi-finals, with table-toppers India unbeaten in seven matches and South Africa second after six victories.
India named an unchanged side from their thumping win over Sri Lanka, with all-rounder Hardik Pandya ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to an ankle injury.
“It looks like a good pitch and honestly it’s more to do with what we want to do as a team,” Rohit said. “It’s going to be a good game with two teams at the top of the table.
“I love playing here and the Indian team loves playing at this historic ground.”
South Africa made one change bringing in spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in place of Gerald Coetzee.
“Looking at the wicket, we would have batted first, but it will be a nice challenge for us to chase,” said South Africa captain Temba Bavuma.
“Chasing in an area where we need to get a lot more confidence.”
Teams:
India: India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
(Writing by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by David Evans)
