Bengaluru, Sep 22 (IANS) India have elected to bat first at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday in the third and final T20I against South Africa.

India lead the three-match series 1-0 following their victory in Mohali on Wednesday while the first match in Dharamsala was washed out without a ball being bowled on September 15.

India skipper Virat Kohli said the hosts have gone in with an unchanged XI from the second T20I in Mohali. South Africa have made one change to their side with Beuran Hendricks replacing Anrich Nortje.

"Looks like a nice wicket. I know this is a ground where teams have chased well. But going into the T20 World Cup, we want to improve on a few things as a team. Batting first is an area we want to improve upon. Batting first is something we're also looking to strengthen.

"Results are always a priority, but we need to get out of our comfort zone also. Come the World Cup, toss is not in your control, you should be able to perform whether batting or bowling first. Have a few plans in mind, will be looking to executing those," Kohli said at the toss.

South Africa skipper Quinton de Kock said that the Proteas will be looking to make improvements upon their performance in the second T20I that ended in a seven-wicket loss for them.

"It will be a good wicket anyway, whether we batted or bowled. We will have to try and compete, be the best players we can be. Last match was up and down for the team. We will try to learn from our mistakes," de Kock said.

Playing XI
South Africa: Quinton de Kock(c/wk), Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Andile Phehlukwayo, Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks, Tabraiz Shamsi

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini

--IANS rkm/arm