1st ODI, India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli eyes top ODI spot

The One Day International series between India and South Africa is set to start.South Africa and India will vie for the world number one ranking again when they meet in a six-match one-day international series, starting at Kingsmead on Thursday.

The past week saw India losing to the host 2-1 and barely managing to save themselves from a series whitewash. The performance, especially the batting side was not at par but keeping the bittersweet memories of the Test series aside, team India is now looking forward to salvaging the pride in a limited overs format.

If we talk about history, India has never won an ODI match in the Kingsmead, Durban and that's an additional pressure on skipper Virat Kohli and the team but it is expected that 'Men in blue' would start the ODI series with new energy.

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Presence of former captain, MS Dhoni, might help the team, as Virat's leadership was questioned by many veteran cricketers.

Although Indian top batting order failed badly during the Test matches, in some instances, few of the batsmen played really well but they were not in a position to absorb the pressure and as a result, they lost the series.

Unlike the Tests, the one-day internationals could be dominated by batsmen, with six of the world's top ten one-day batsmen in action on pitches which, unlike the Tests, should favour aggressive stroke play.

Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal might give a new boost to the team with their spinning abilities. On the other hand, Ab de Villiers has been ruled out of the first three ODIs against India with a finger injury and that's definitely a good news for team India.

When it comes to ODI matches limited over format, India has performed exponentially well in the recent past. In the last ODI series against Sri Lanka, India won the series by 4-1.

South Africa are on top of the International Cricket Council one-day rankings by a slender one point from India. Altogether, it's a really good opportunity for team India to grab the 1st rank again.

Squad (TBC):

South Africa:

Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo

India:

Virat Kohli (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur