India looking to bounce back from their 2-0 Test series defeat against South Africa, gears up for upcoming 3-match ODI series

RANCHI (Jharkhand): India is looking to bounce back from their 2-0 Test series defeat against South Africa as they gear up for the upcoming three-match ODI series.

The return of star players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is expected to boost the Indian team’s morale, especially with their impressive ODI records in India. Kohli holds the record for the most ODI centuries in India with 24, while Rohit has 14.

India will clash with South Africa in the first ODI of the three-match series at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday. The ODI series follows India’s humiliating 2-0 defeat by the Proteas, during which Team India struggled in both batting and bowling.

After defeating the hosts by 30 runs in the first Test at Kolkata, South Africa clinched a historic 408-run win over India in the second Test in Guwahati, becoming the first side to beat India by more than 400 runs. The dominant victory completed a 2-0 series sweep and stood out as one of the most commanding Test results in recent times.

The ODI series, which starts on November 30 in Ranchi, offers India a chance to restore confidence and balance the head-to-head record in ODIs. South Africa, on the other hand, is coming off a historic Test series win in India and will look to carry that momentum into the ODI format.

KL Rahul will lead Team India in the ODIs in Shubman Gill’s absence. With Gill out, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad are the two contenders to open, and the southpaw is expected to get the call for the first game.

Team India stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are set to return to action. The duo last appeared in an ODI in Australia in October, where Rohit struck an unbeaten, match-winning 121 and Kohli added a smooth, unbeaten 74. The pair combined for a 168-run partnership. Notably, both veterans now feature exclusively in ODI cricket, having stepped away from Tests and T20Is.

Both Kohli and Rohit are on the verge of breaking historic records ahead of the ODI series opener in Ranchi. Rohit, the current number-one-ranked ODI batter, is poised to become only the fourth Indian batter to reach 20,000 runs. He has 19,902 international runs to his name in 502 matches.
The India opener scored 4,301 runs in 67 tests. He has 4,231 runs in T20Is and 11,370 runs in ODIs. He is only 98 runs away from joining an elite 20,000-run club that includes Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid.

Kohli, meanwhile, is just one century away from holding the record for the most hundreds by a batter in a single format. He currently sits on 51 centuries, tied with Sachin Tendulkar, who ended his Test career with the exact tally. Remarkably, only Kohli and Tendulkar have ever reached the milestone of 50 or more centuries in a single format.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Rahul emphasised the immense value of having senior players like Kohli and Rohit in the team. He said their presence and experience boost the dressing room’s confidence and support younger players.

“Their importance at any point is huge. Having senior players on the team obviously makes the dressing room feel much more confident. Just having their presence and experience helps a lot of players in the dressing room and the team. So, we’re really happy that they’re here,” Rahul said.

“Winning is the most important thing. That’s what we’re trying to focus on and try and forget what happened a week ago and focus on the game tomorrow and see how we can put in a collective performance which helps us get a victory and then go on from here to the next venue and see how we can do that again and try and win this series. So, that’s the most important thing, and that’s what we’re thinking about. Obviously, having a settled team helps and having some similar faces helps the dressing room as well,” the right-hand batter said.

Rahul praised Kohli’s ability to rotate strike, noting that taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries in ODI and Test cricket.

“Taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries in ODI cricket and in Test match cricket, maybe not as much in T20 format. That’s something that Virat has done so well over his career. It’s something that we’ve looked at Virat and tried to learn. Even in the dressing room, we all talked to him and Rohit about how we can get better as batsmen, how we can rotate the strike a lot more. He’s obviously the master at doing that in ODI cricket. So, we’re really happy that he’s back in the dressing room and he’s very excited to be here and play these games,” he said. (ANI)