Toss – South Africa chose to bowl first vs England
After the gloom of Cardiff, there was sunshine in Manchester at toss time with the second T20I set to be a full, 20-over-a-side match as England look to level the series. They will bat first at Old Trafford with South Africa captain Aiden Markram “not totally convinced” of his decision to bowl but hoping to take advantage of any early moisture with his four-man seam attack.
Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, who came back from injury two days ago, will lead the attack while Kwena Maphaka and Lizaad Williams – also returning from an extended period on the sidelines – make up the rest of the pace pack. Corbin Bosch missed out with left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin included in the XI.
Fortuin was an 11th hour replacement in the squad for Keshav Maharaj, who was ruled out after suffering a groin strain in the warm-ups on Wednesday. Maharaj’s T20I comeback did not materialise and he will have to wait until at least November when South Africa play in Pakistan.
Fortuin was available at late notice since he was already in England playing county cricket. Hampshire expect to have him available for T20 Blast Finals Day on Saturday despite his call-up.
England also made one change to the team that lost the series opener. Jofra Archer, who was due to play the first match but withdrawn on the reduction, is back in the XI in place of Jamie Overton. Luke Wood, who took two early wickets after replacing Archer in Cardiff, retains his spot.
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Luke Wood, 11 Adil Rashid.
South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickleton (wk), 3 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Bjorn Fortuin, 10 Kwena Maphaka 11 Lizaad Williams.