Both the Indian and the South African team introduced debutant players in the first match of the three-match ODI series. While India gave the ODI cap to all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer who has already made his T20I debut for the country and Marco Jansen, who has so far played three Tests for the Proteas was also rewarded with the ODI cap.
The first game is taking place at Boland Park, Paarl and Indians are being captained by KL Rahul, who is standing in for regular white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma. Temba Bavuma returned as skipper for the South African side who were captained by Dean Elgar in the Tests.
India has gone with Iyer in place of Suryakumar Yadav who has not been picked in the playing xi. Shreyas Iyer has been preferred ahead of him. Ravichandran Ashwin also returns to the ODI set-up for the first time in five years. He last played an ODI for India in 2017.