Cuttack: Team India captains have made it a habit to lose tosses, irrespective of the format.
On Tuesday evening at the Barabati Stadium here, Suryakumar Yadav aka SKY spun the coin but it was South African captain Aiden Markram who called correctly ahead of the first T20 International.
It was no surprise that South African skipper asked India to bat first.
India’s T20 captain SKY was laughing as the coin fell against him and his team yet again. In September, SKY broke a 15-match toss losing streak in T20Is. He then lost four of the five tosses in the series against Australia. In ODIs, India lost 20 tosses on the trot.
SKY said he was “happy” to bat first.
“We were a little confused.. yesterday wicket looked a bit greener… happy to bat first and defend. It’s a good challenge for us due to the dew,” SKY told toss presenter Ravi Shastri.
🚨 Toss 🚨#TeamIndia have been put into bat first.
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/tiemfwcNPh #INDvSA | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/ZCl53IqrWK
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 9, 2025
Sanju Samson missed out as Jitesh Sharma was picked as wicketkeeper-batter.
PLAYING XIs
India — Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (capt.), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah.
South Africa — Quinton de Kock (WK), Aiden Markram (capt.), Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lutho Sipamla, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi.
