Proteas win toss and bowl in first T20

South Africa captain, Aiden Markram, won the toss and chose to bowl first in the first of five T20 Internationals against India at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Tuesday

The home side start the series as strong favourites with a settled and in-form team which has won 26 and lost just four matches since the two countries met in the last T20 World Cup final in Barbados 17 months ago.

South Africa have used over 30 players in the format during that time and have won nine matches and lost 16, including a one-off fixture against Namibia.

INDIA: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wkt), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wkt), Aiden Markram (captain), Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje