Florida [USA]: India won the toss and elected to bowl first against West Indies in the first T20I here at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill on Saturday.
Following the toss, India captain Virat Kohli said the team is fine now. He added that Chahar brothers – Rahul and Deepak – will not play in the opening T20I.
“We will bowl first. This wicket has been under covers so there might be a bit of moisture and it’s gonna get flattered with more sun on it. It is always good to get to the park. We are pretty fine now. Chahar brothers are not playing,” Kohli said.
West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite said he would have opted to bowl as well had he won the toss.
“We would have bowled first too because of the same reasons. There might be a bit in it for the first few overs. We have to see that tough period out and have enough wickets for the back-end of the innings. We are building, looking forward to the T20 World Cup. Hopefully, we will peak in the World Cup,” Brathwaite said.
Following are playing XI:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (c), John Campbell, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Keemo Paul, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Rovman Powell, Oshane Thomas.