Lucknow, Oct 6 (ANS) India won the toss and elected to bowl against the West Indies in the first T20I of the five-match series at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday.

After making his ODI debut on September 27, Naman Dhir is set to make his T20I debut in the series opener. He received his maiden T20I cap from Arshdeep Singh. It will also be a special game for Akeal Hosein, who will play his 100th T20I for the West Indies.

India captain Shreyas Iyer acknowledged the challenge posed by a formidable West Indies side but backed his team to settle quickly despite a hectic travel schedule following their Asian Games campaign. Iyer also confirmed that Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Reddy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Prince Yadav were left out of the playing XI.

“We are going to bowl first; it’s a mixed surface. There will be some dew as well. Travel was pretty hectic. Came last night; today we have turned up for the game, but we are in the zone. They have been fabulous; they have dominated T20 cricket in the last few years. They have got brilliant batting and all-rounders. Looking forward to the contest. Ravi, Nitish, Vaibhav and one more is sitting out, Prince.”

West Indies skipper Shai Hope said, “We would have bowled first as well. In India, it’s always good to chase. We need to adapt to the conditions; it’s different. We have new guys coming and some going out. We just got to play our best cricket. Six bowling options for us, some all-rounders as well.”

Playing XIs:

West Indies: Shai Hope (wk/c), Kamil Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Matthew Forde, Roston Chase, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Springer, Shamar Joseph

India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Mayank Yadav

–IANS

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