St Kitts: India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against West Indies in the third T20I of the five-match series, here on Tuesday.
India made one change in their team as Deepak Hooda came in place of Ravindra Jadeja for this game.
“We will field first, not because of the conditions, but this is what we wanted to do as a team. We want to capitalize on the powerplay, this is a small ground, a six hitting ground, but the average score isn’t high so we need to keep that in mind as well. The guys have been given the chance to express themselves, so the high-risk shots come into play, but we do understand that,” said Rohit at the toss.
“I don’t know about that (if India has a weakness against left-arm pace). As a team we want to improve in all aspects of the game, but in the last few series, the left-arm seamers have done well against us. I don’t see that as a concern. It’s not that the guys are struggling, it happens when you’re trying to score quickly. But we do need to understand when we come up against certain bowlers, we just want to come out and express ourselves, that’s what we want to continue doing. Just one change, Jadeja has been rested, Hooda is in,” he added.
On the other hand, Nicholas Pooran led West Indies also made one change with Dominic Drakes replacing Odean Smith.
“We wanted to bat first as well, this is a ground where chasing is the preferred option. But now we need to put up a good score on the board and defend it. Credit to the bowling group, they performed well as a unit, they did come hard at us, but we stuck to our task,” said Pooran.
“We did speak about the left-arm option, we spoke about it during the team meetings. That’s why we have one change today – Dominic Drakes is in, he replaces Odean Smith. We are backing our boys and it’s important to have the right guys in the right positions,” he added.
Playing XI:
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh
West Indies: Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Nicholas Pooran(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Devon Thomas(w), Rovman Powell, Dominic Drakes, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy
–IANS
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