India opt to bowl v West Indies (43 overs a side)
A shortened game, together with a fresh wicket, was the primary reason why India captain Virat Kohli chose to field first in the opening ODI against West Indies in Providence. The plan for India, according to Kohli at the toss, was to “tick boxes” and “begin the series well.”
For West Indies captain Jason Holder, the ODI series after a middling World Cup performance means a “fresh start.” He admitted that the hosts would’ve preferred fielding too.
India enter the match with two left-arm spinners in Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, while Shreyas Iyer finds a place in the XI too. The players missing out are Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey.
West Indies left out the bowling allrounder Keemo Paul, fast bowler Oshane Thomas and top-order batsman John Campbell.
The toss took place 90 minutes after the scheduled start of the game, which means hat a total of 14 overs were lost. But by the time the coin went up, the sun was out and the skies were clear.
West Indies XI: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Shai Hope (wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Fabian Allen, 9 Carlos Brathwaite, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Sheldon Cottrell
India XI: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk) 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav
Source: ESPN Crickinfo