‘Gazebo’, ‘Gaboora’: Indian players struggle to pronounce Gqeberha, host city of 2nd ODI vs South Africa | Cricket News

The Indian ODI team will be taking on South Africa for the second 50-over match in the three match series on Tuesday and the city which hosts the match has a pretty unorthodox name in Gqeberha, previously named Port Elizabeth.
As Team India landed in the city, they were asked to spell or pronounce Gqeberha which stumped a lot of them, including skipper KL Rahul.
“What is it called? I do not know how to pronounce it,” Rahul said in a video shared the BCCI. Other stars like Tilak Varma as well as Yuzvendra Chahal also couldn’t get it right with the former terming it “Gazebo” while the latter said “Gaboora.”

Tomorrow India will play the second ODI in .
We ask #TeamIndia members to spell/pronounce the city’s name. Did they get it right?😀😎 #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/roxHxvuLUP
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 18, 2023
Rinku Singh said “Greba” while Sanju Samson jokingly said, “Thiruvananthapuram.” While most of them did get it right after hearing the pronunciation, Rahul also got the spelling correct.
Meanwhile for the 2nd ODI, Rajat Patidar will be pitted against Rinku for the lone available batting slot when a determined Indian team gears up for the final kill against a lacklustre South Africa on Tuesday.
After young pacers Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan produced a near flawless performance in the opening game that India won eight wickets, KL Rahul wouldn’t like to take his foot off the pedal and aim to heal the scars of 0-3 defeat here under his leadership back in 2022.
India will handover a debut ODI cap to one of its reserve batters as Shreyas Iyer has linked up with the Test squad after Sunday’s game with an eye on the two-match series, starting on ‘Boxing Day’.
The opening game witnessed the debut of young left-handed opener B Sai Sudharsan, whose silken half-century held a lot of promise going into the future.
For the hosts, this series is a massive white ball test for its batters in the post Quinton de Kock era. De Kock’s exhilarating strokeplay at the top, allowed the Rassie van der Dussens, Heinrich Klaasens and David Millers to accelerate.
But in slightly helpful bowling conditions, India’s fringe pacers exposed their shortcomings and they will have to put up a way better show in the second game, which will be a day/night affair.
(With Agency Inputs)