South Africa vs India 2018: India's probable playing XI for fifth ODI

After ensuring that they don't lose out the six-ODI series against South Africa, Team India succumbed to their first loss of the limited overs leg in Johannesburg. The visitors had won the toss at Bullring, decided to bat first and managed to add 289 runs courtesy a Shikhar Dhawan century.

In reply, the Africans, in a rain-curtailed chase were given a target of 202 to chase in 28 overs, which they achieved with a little less than three overs to spare. Repetitive interruptions in play due to rain and lightning didn't let the Indian batsmen get into a proper rhythm and despite a spirited start by Dhawan and Kohli, they didn't manage to cross the 300-mark.

In the fourth ODI, Kohli and the team management had opted to go in with Shreyas Iyer at number five as Kedar Jadhav wasn't match-fit. Let's see how Team India could line up in the fifth ODI at Port Elizabeth, which if they win, the series will be theirs.

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Openers

Rohit Sharma

Despite his poor run of form which has seen him score just 40 runs in the first four ODI encounter, Rohit Sharma will open the innings for Team India. The fact that he is one of Kohli's most trusted men in the side and there are not many lucrative options for the opener slot in the touring squad makes him an automatic choice in the XI.

Shikhar Dhawan

The Delhi batsman has hit a purple patch and is in one of the best phases of his career. 271 runs in four matches with a century and two half-centuries, Dhawan is the second highest run-scorer of the series after Kohli and will be a part of the left-right opening pair come Tuesday.

Middle Order

Virat Kohli

The skipper is leading from the front on the tour and leads the scoring chart of the ODIs as well after four matches with 393 runs courtesy two centuries and a half-century. Kohli will walk in at number three at Port Elizabeth and given Rohit's poor form, he'll have to make that walk quite early on in the innings.

Ajinkya Rahane

India's new number four seemed to have slid in perfectly after a 79-run knock in the first ODI. Though he hasn't been able to contribute much in the following matches, it looks highly unlikely that he'll be dropped from the starting XI.

Manish Pandey

With Kedar Jadhav's injury situation still unclear, the team management would want to experiment a bit more with the number five slot. After Shreyas Iyer's outing in the last match, where the youngster scored 18 runs, we could see Manish Pandey lining up for the Men in Blue. While the rest of the spots are more or less decided, this position has quite a few suitors with trusted batsmen like Dinesh Karthik waiting in the wings as well.

Wicketkeeper and all-rounder

MS Dhoni

The former skipper played a responsible 42-run knock in the last ODI to take India to a respectable total after Kohli and Dhawan had departed. His mentoring of both the wrist spinners has been commendable as well. Unless there's an early collapse, Dhoni will be batting at the number six position.

Hardik Pandya

Pandya hasn't been in the best of forms and is struggling to have an impact in any of the matches. However, Kohli usually favours the fast bowling all-rounder and will play him in the fifth ODI.

Spinners

Kuldeep Yadav

After dominating South African batsmen in the first three ODIs, Kuldeep Yadav went for quite a few runs in the fourth match and returned with figures of 51/2 in six overs. A strong showing in the fifth ODI would do a world of good to the youngster, who is also the highest wicket-taker of the series along with Chahal (12 wickets).

Yuzvendra Chahal

Like Kuldeep, Chahal was sent to the cleaners by the South African middle order and went for as many as 68 runs in 5.3 overs. However, the leggie would want to shrug that performance off his shoulders and look for wickets again in the fifth match.

Pacers

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar was at his brilliant best in the Test series, however, he hasn't been among the wickets in the ODI series with only two wickets to his name. Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur are part of the squad as well, however, the management would definitely want to go in with Bhuvi.

Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah is the third highest wicket-taker of the series after the spin twins with five scalps. He was the best Indian bowler in the fourth ODI and gave away only 21 runs in his quota of five overs. He will be the second pacer of the Indian bowling attack.