Former India batter turned commentator Cheteshwar Pujara backed the home team’s decision to pick Prince Yadav ahead of Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI for the third T20I against the West Indies in Indore. He also agreed with the decision to pick Nitish Kumar Reddy instead of Shivam Dube and added that India chose the playing XI according to the conditions.
India beat the West Indies by 14 runs at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Sunday, October 11, in the third T20I as well.

During a discussion on Cricinfo, Pujara said: “I think the team selection was perfect. In the T20 format, I believe in picking the best XI on a given day based on the conditions and the ground. Kuldeep has been bowling really well, but you needed someone like Prince Yadav to be part of the playing XI. And, it was a fair call to pick Nitish Kumar Reddy instead of Shivam Dube. Not that Shivam is not a good T20 player, but Reddy is a better bowler.”

Left-arm pace bowler Arshdeep Singh was the Player of the Match in Indore for his figures of 3-44 from four overs as well. He got the big wickets of Shai Hope (5) and Sherfane Rutherford (32) before dismissing Keemo Paul.

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“It was important that Indian bowlers came up with a good game plan, which was not to give a lot of room to the West Indies batters, especially Shai Hope. And, the kind of angles Indian bowlers created… Someone like Arshdeep Singh is not used to bowling around the stumps. He always prefers to bowl over the stumps, but he challenged himself to go around the stumps, try and create that angle and keep the balls in the stumps and he got his reward,” Cheteshwar Pujara concluded.