India bowl first as Ravi Bishnoi debuts; Jason Holder out with injury

West Indies welcomed back fit-again Kieron Pollard as captain with Roston Chase replacing Holder

Toss: India opt to bowl vs West Indies

India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and inserted West Indies in the first T20I at Eden Gardens. India handed a debut to 21-year-old legspinner Ravi Bishnoi, pairing him up with senior legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal. This means that left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, who was added to the squad in place of the injured Washington Sundar, has to wait further for his T20I comeback. He last appeared for India in the format in July last year.

Rohit also confirmed that Ishan Kishan will open the batting along with him. They have four seam-bowling options – Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Venkatesh Iyer.

West Indies welcomed back Kieron Pollard who had recovered sufficiently from the knee niggle that had kept him out of the last two ODIs. The visitors made a forced change, with offspin-bowling allrounder Roston Chase replacing Jason Holder, who was hit during practice, according to Pollard.

While India picked two legspinners, West Indies left out their premier legspinner Hayden Walsh Jr. and instead selected three fingerspinners – Akeal Hosein, Fabian Allen and Chase.

Brandon King was carded to open the batting along with allrounder Kyle Mayers for West Indies.

West Indies were swept 3-0 in the preceding ODI series, but Rohit expected them to challenge India in the shortest format. In their most recent T20I series, West Indies had trumped England 3-2 at home.

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Suryakumar Yadav, 6 Venkatesh Iyer, 7 Harshal Patel, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

West Indies: 1 Kyle Mayers, 2 Brandon King, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Kieron Pollard (capt), 5 Rovman Powell, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Fabian Allen, 9 Odean Smith, 10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Sheldon Cottrell

Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.

India bowl first as Ravi Bishnoi debuts; Jason Holder out with injury

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