SA vs IND 2024: Why is Patrick Kruger not playing the 2nd T20I?

The South African captain won the toss and decided to bowl first in the second Twenty20 International of the four-match series, putting Aiden Markram & Co. in a fortunate position once more. Markram stated during his performance at St. George’s Park in Gqeberha that the decision to allow India to establish a target in order to better evaluate the preparations was largely influenced by the cloudy weather.

India would have been extremely confident coming into the match after their thrilling victory in the previous match. Additionally, Men in Blue captain Suryakumar Yadav gave an explanation of the reasoning behind selecting a playing combination that supports the team’s positive habits.

At the toss, captain Markram decided that top-order batsman Reeza Hendricks would be a better addition to chase the target down at St George’s Park, thus he replaced Patrick Kruger.

This was the only change South Africa made before the second match. Since Hendricks was unavailable for the first game, Patrick Kruger was promoted to the starting lineup. However, the hitter was forced to leave his position due to Hendricks’ arrival, which was understandable.

Not worried about the result or outcome: Aiden Markram.

“Again, we’re going to bowl first. The obvious part is that there is rain. I hope the bowlers make use of the wetness. We have Hendricks in and Kruger out. “We don’t care about the result or the outcome,” Markram was cited as saying during the toss.

On the other hand, Suryakumar argued that upholding positive practices was the reason why the Indian team decided to continue with their winning lineup and made no changes.

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Given how well the previous game went, we wanted to bat first and play the same style of cricket. Playing any game always teaches you something. We want the positive behaviours to persist. Playing with the same XI, no changes,” the Indian captain said.

SA vs IND 2024, 2nd T20I: Playing XIs

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

South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter