IND vs SA, 3rd ODI: Predicted India Playing XI vs South Africa

After registering a convincing seven-wicket win in the second game, the action moves to the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi where India and South Africa will be locking horns in the third and final One Day International on Tuesday, October 11. 

The Indian team ended up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the series opener despite Sanju Samson's batting heroics. However, they made a remarkable comeback in the second ODI by showing a brilliant batting performance to level the series and take this to the decider. 

With the series on the line, the Men in Blue would not be keen on doing too many experiments and would rather prefer fielding the same winning combination. This means that the players who are warming the bench including the likes of Rahul Tripathi, Rajat Patidar, and, Mukesh Kumar might not get a chance on this occasion as well.

Without further ado, here's a look at India's playing XI for the third ODI.

Openers: Shikhar Dhawan (c) and Shubman Gill

Stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan's performances have not been up to the mark with the bat. Dhawan, who is eyeing a place in the next year's ODI World Cup squad must showcase consistent performances from hereon in order to be on the selectors' radar. The southpaw has so far scored only 17 runs from two outings.

Shubman Gill on the other hand has also not been able to deliver on the 22 yards and if he wants to fit in the Indian squad for the 2023 World Cup, then he has to make his bat do the talking as there is already a lot of stiff competion in the ODI setup. Gill has scored 31 runs so far in the series and 28 of them came in the second One Day International.

Middle Order: Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson

India's middle-order batters are desperately looking to prove a point after being ignored from the T20 World Cup squad. Ishan Kishan who scored just 20 in the first game narrowly missed out on a century by seven runs. However, before walking back to the pavilion, he scored a match-winning 93.

Shreyas Iyer might have struggled in the opening game, but he was India's savior in the all-important second ODI at Ranchi. Shreyas along with Ishan added 161 runs for the third wicket and brought the Men in Blue closer to the target. Iyer remained unbeaten right till the end scoring 113 runs off 111 balls.

Sanju Samson almost single-handedly took India over the line in the first game where he scored a valiant unbeaten 86 runs off 63 deliveries. He remained unbeaten in the second game as well contributing 30 runs and working in tandem with Shreyas Iyer to get the job done for India in the chase. 

All-Rounders: Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Shardul Thakur

Washington Sundar has been roped in as a replacement for the injured bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar who is India's T20 World Cup-bound player. Sundar is known for adding some crucial runs at the lower-order. In the last game, even though he picked up the wicket of a well-set Aiden Markram, the Tamil Nadu cricketer ended up conceding 60 runs at an economy of 6.7 from his nine overs.

Shahbaz Ahmed also has the ability to play a game-changing knock in the middle-order and the emerging spinner had made his ODI debut at Ranchi where he created a good first impression by castling Janneman Malan. He finished with figures of 1/54 from his 10 overs at an economy rate of 5.4.

Shardul Thakur is looking to make a strong statement of featuring in India's 2023 World Cup squad after being ignored for this year's T20 World Cup. Thakur has picked up three wickets so far and his best performance came in the first ODI where he starred with both the bat and ball. He first registered two scalps to his name and then contributed with a valuable 33. 

Bowlers: Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Siraj

Kuldeep Yadav bowled a wonderful delivery that completely beat Aiden Markram's defence in the first game. The chinaman bowler has so far registered two scalps to his name in the ongoing series.

Avesh Khan has turned out to be both expensive as well as wicketless in the first two games. In the last match, he bowled only seven overs and ended up conceding 35 runs at an economy of five. Khan would be eager to make amends in the decider.

Mohammed Siraj has been on a roll in this series and registered a match-winning three-wicket haul in the all-important second ODI. He finished with figures of 3/38 from his 10 overs including a maiden at an economy of 3.8. Siraj would be hoping for yet another impactful performance in the series decider.

Here's India's Predicted XI vs South Africa:

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson(w), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan