India win toss, opt to bowl in first West Indies T20
Hyderabad, India, Dec 6 (AFP/APP): India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bowl first in the opening Twenty20 international against West Indies in Hyderabad on Friday.
Paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar returns to the XI after being added to the T20 squad for the three-match series.
“There’s going to be dew later on for sure and it’s a beautiful wicket to bat on,” Kohli said at the toss.
“Will probably get easier to bat with the ball getting wet (in the second innings). Chasing is our strength.”
Reigning T20 World Cup champions West Indies, led by Kieron Pollard, will be looking to bounce back from their 1-2 loss to Afghanistan last month.
“The toss is 50-50, so we can’t really control it. You just have to bat and bat well,” Pollard said.
“The outside noise is not going to help us, we have to know what we have to do and that’s exactly what our focus is on. Everything is geared towards playing a complete game and coming out on top.”
Teams
India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal
West Indies: Kieron Pollard (capt), Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Jason Holder, Khary Pierre, Kesrick Williams, Sheldon Cottrell, Hayden Walsh Jr
Umpires: Nitin Menon (IND) and CK Nandan (IND)
TV umpire: Anil Chaudhary (IND)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
