Pant's captaincy at test as India aim comeback in 2nd T20 against South Africa

Team India captain Rishabh Pant will expect an improved showing from the Indian bowlers as he plots a comeback against South Africa in the second T20 in Cuttack on June 12 of the fivematch seriesPant is leading Team India for the first ever time he had to swallow a bitter pill when South Africas David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen shot down an imposing 212 with utmost nonchalance to go up 10 in the seriesThe southpaw also had a forgettable Indian Premier League where he failed to lead Delhi Capitals to the playoffs Seen as a future whiteball captain Pants stakes have suddenly come down postIPL and that has coincided with the resurgence of Hardik Pandya The allrounder took the IPL by storm as he led Gujarat Titans GT to the champions title in their debut seasonIt may still be early days for Pant the leader but his body language never stood out and he looked under pressure on his captaincy debut He also made a debatable decision to underbowl the IPL Purple Cap winner Yuzvendra Chahal fresh from claiming 27 wickets for runnersup Rajasthan Royals At Kotla the leggie bowled only two full oversAs for Pandya fresh after his historic success with GT continued from where he left in the IPL Pandya who last played for India in November last year in the 2021 T20 World Cup dazzled with the bat with a 31 not out from 12 balls to prop the total past 200 But he failed to impress with the bowl and leaked 18 runs in his only overAlso Read PAK vs WI Babar Azams gloves fielding costs Pakistan five runs against West Indies in 2nd ODIThe big headache for Pant would be the bowling department where he would have to make a call between Arshdeep Singh and pace gun Umran Malik The duo has been trying hard to impress at the nets with their pace and accuracy it is likely that one among the duo may be well set for the upcoming matchesWhile the batting looks in perfect shape the newlook pace department looked flat in the series openerSeniormost Bhuvneshwar Kumar did not look the same and leaked runs in the death overs while Harshal Patel too was taken to cleaners Youngster Avesh Khan too failed to impress though he was the most economical among the trioHowever It would not be an easy task as another slipup would mean the Pantled side would have the difficult task of winning three in a rowIn the form of his life Miller who scored 481 runs at 6871 in the IPL to play a key role in GTs triumph has started in ominous fashion and looked unstoppable both against spin and pace at KotlaQuinton de Kock failed to convert his start but the Lucknow Super Giants batter also scored a bagful of runs 508 in the IPL and he would look to make it count hereWith Van der Dussen also striking it rich the trio will form the batting backbone while the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje would look to stop the IndiansTeamsIndia Rishabh Pant c amp wk Ruturaj Gaikwad Ishan Kishan Deepak Hooda Shreyas IyerDinesh Karthik Hardik Pandya Venkatesh Iyer Yuzvendra Chahal Axar Patel Ravi Bishnoi Bhuvneshwar Kumar Harshal Patel Avesh Khan Arshdeep Singh Umran MalikSouth Africa Temba Bavuma c Quinton de Kock wk Reeza Hendricks Heinrich Klaasen Keshav Maharaj Aiden Markram David Miller Lungi Ngidi Anrich Nortje Wayne Parnell Dwaine Pretorius Kagiso Rabada Tabraiz Shamsi Tristan Stubbs Rassie van der Dussen Marco JansenMatch starts at 7pm ISTwith PTI Inputs