Team India will be eyeing to field their best playing XI when they take on West Indies in the 3-match T20I series opener Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Friday. With hardly a year left for the T20 World Cup in Australia, India skipper Virat Kohli clarified that his team was not among the top 3 teams in the T20Is because they did not field their best XIs often in a bid to try out youngsters.
Kohli made it clear that they would now look to play the best XI more regularly hereon than before. Te veteran pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami returned to the T20 scheme of things while frontline left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav also made a comeback.
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Talking about West Indies, who have crowned the T20 world champions in 2016, will enter the three-match series ranked 10th and under new captain Kieron Pollard. Earlier this year when both the teams locked horn with each other, India defeated the Caribbean team 3-0. Expecting the high intensity of the game, here are some of the predictions for the match.
India
KL Rahul is set to take the opener’s position to partner Rohit Sharma in place of Shikhar Dhawan. Sanju Samson, Dhawan’s replacement, might have to wait to get into the playing XI while for game time as Kohli supporting Rishabh Pant. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar had a good workout in the lead up to the game and are likely to be the two front-line fast bowlers in the XI, with Shivam Dube’s seam to back them. With regards to spin, it might come down to two/three of the four options in the form of Sundar, Jadeja, Kuldeep and Chahal, and whether they’ll let go of an extra batting option in order to accommodate three.
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Predicted XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar/Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav/Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
West Indies
Windies will miss the big guns like Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, and Carlos Brathwaite in the squad and their ppplace is expected to be filled by Allen, Brandon King, and Hayden Walsh Jr. Nicholas Pooran, who is part of the squad for the T20I series, will miss out on the first game as he’s still serving his three-match suspension for tampering with the ball. With Shai Hope also not part of the team, Ramdin is likely to take the gloves for the first game.
Predicted XI: Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis, Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Kieron Pollard (c), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh Jr., Sheldon Cottrell
Fantasy XI
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (VC), Dinesh Ramdin, Brandon King, Shreyas Iyer, Kieron Pollard, Jason Holder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal.
