India ended their two-year wait to win a toss in the ODI arena that eventually played a huge role as expected in their demolition of South Africa in the final ODI. Having struggled in the final 15 overs or so in the opening two ODIs as a result of dew, India came up with a contrasting bowling effort to skittle out South Africa for just 270 before getting the job done with more than 10 overs to spare.

Here are the talking points from the game:

Jaiswal's ODI audition

This was the only format where he hadn't made a mark yet. But that was also largely down to the fact that he doesn't get opportunities in 50-over cricket, but with Shubman Gill not being available, Yashasvi Jaiswal finally got a run of games to make an impression which he almost squandered after failing in the first two games. With only 271 to chase, Jaiswal bid his time to get through the initial jitters before slowly getting into his groove and eventually became just the sixth Indian to score a ton in all three international formats. With Ruturaj Gaikwad impressing in the last game, it was imperative for Jaiswal to send a reminder of his own to remain in the scheme of things.

The clock is ticking for Ryan Rickelton

Quinton de Kock's return to the international setup was always going to put pressure on Ryan Rickelton given they both occupy the same spot in the batting order while also sharing the same secondary role on the field. While he has already now lost his spot in the T20I setup with a World Cup looming large, Rickelton's stocks have now gone further down following the conclusion of this series. Named as a reserve in the squad, Rickelton received an opportunity to play the opening ODI in the absence of Temba Bavuma and again in the final game as a result of Tony de Zorzi's injury. However, he ended up registering ducks in both the games which will cast doubts over his immediate future in the white-ball arena. To add to South Africa's frustration, they also moved Aiden Markram down to No.5 despite his century in the last game, just to accommodate Rickelton in his natural position. The move failed as Markram departed for just 1.

Pant goes further down in the pecking order

It was largely predicted that India would go in with the same batting lineup in the final ODI especially after Gaikwad's century in the second game. So it meant another game on the bench for the backups in the squad - Rishabh Pant, Tilak Varma and Dhruv Jurel. But India did make a change in the end by leaving out Washington Sundar for a proper middle order batter. It was quite telling that they didn't go for Pant though as Tilak got the nod ahead of him. The fact that Tilak was preferred even though the youngster wasn't present in India's recent ODI squads is an indication that the management currently views Pant only as KL Rahul's backup.

Prasidh's redemption

After the end of the second game, Prasidh Krishna's economy rate in the series stood at 8.48. India didn't have backup options in the squad and retained their bowling composition. Prasidh once again got off to a poor start, conceding 27 runs in his first two overs which forced KL Rahul to take him out of the attack immediately. But with South Africa coasting at 158/2 after 26 overs, Prasidh was brought back and he turned the game around in stunning fashion. He removed Matthew Breetzke and Markram in the same over before castling the centurion de Kock as his spell now read 4-0-11-3. South Africa just couldn't recover from those strikes as Prasidh also added the final wicket to his tally to round off the series on a happy note.

Kuldeep for 2027?

India attacked their opposition in the Champions Trophy earlier this year with both Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy given the conditions in Dubai. But in South Africa, there's going to be room only for one wrist spinner with the team management favouring Kuldeep in the last couple of series. And going by what he has done now this series, it looks like Kuldeep will be keeping Varun away from the ODI squad. Having picked up a four-wicket haul in the opening game of the series, Kuldeep hurt South Africa again with another four-wicket haul in the series decider. Even though the World Cup is two years away, something extraordinary has to happen over the next 12 months for Kuldeep to not be numero uno.