Mumbai, Feb 23 (IANS) Zimbabwe captain Sikander Raza won the toss and elected to bowl first against the West Indies in a Super 8 Group 1 clash in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.

Both teams made one change to their playing XIs, Zimbabwe brought in a fit-again Richard Ngarava for Hamilton Masakaza. At the same time, the West Indies included Romario Shephard and left out Roston Chase.

Raza said he opted to field first because the ground is very suitable for chasing.

“It looks like it’s a ground that is a lot suitable for chasing. Looks like a good deck, but we want to have a good chance of making early inroads…One change: Richard Ngarava has been declared fit,” said Raza at the toss.

West Indies captain Shai Hope said he would have bowled first, too. “We’ve got to play nice cricket for the day. Romario Shephard comes back in, and Roston Chase goes out,” he added.

With India losing to South Africa in the first match in Group 1, both the West Indies and Zimbabwe will be looking to win this match, as that will improve their chances of making it to the semifinals.

Playing XIs:

Zimbabwe: Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Dion Myers, Sikander Raza (c), Ryan Burl, Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Graeme Cremer, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani

West Indies: Brandon King, Shai Hope (wk, c), Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, Matthew Forde, Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie.

–IANS

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