West Indies captain Kieron Pollard won the toss and elected to field first against India in the third and final T20I at the Eden Gardens, here on Sunday.
Speaking at the toss, Pollard mentioned that the West Indies have made four changes in their side for this final game.
“We are going to bowl first. Nothing much has changed in these last two games, the ball comes onto the bat nicely. We have four changes: Walsh, Fabian, Drakes and Hope come back in,” said Pollard.
“When we look at the two games that we lost, we batted well but we faltered during our fielding and bowling at the death. It is also an opportunity for the guys to have a taste of the conditions and see what they can offer,” he added.
On the other hand, fast bowler Avesh Khan is making his T20I debut for India. Avesh received his maiden T20 cap from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed that he will bat down the order and Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan will open the batting for India in the 3rd T20I.
“Feels good to bat first given that we did well in the last game. We have some guys missing. We have four changes: Virat, Bhuvi. Pant and Chahal miss out. Avesh Khan makes his debut. Ruturaj and Ishan will open the batting,” said Rohit.
“There is a lot of cricket ahead of us and the challenge for the World Cup would be to make sure we are mentally and physically fresh. We have an eye on that but at the moment everything looks fine and we are just taking it one game at a time,” he added.
Playing XI:
West Indies: Kyle Mayers, Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Rovman Powell, Kieron Pollard (c), Jason Holder, Roston Chase, Romario Shepherd, Dominic Drakes, Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan(wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan