The five-T20I series will begin on October 6 in Lucknow.
Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara picked his preferred India playing XI for the first T20I against the West Indies, scheduled for October 6 in Lucknow.
The notable omission from the lineup was 15-year-old batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who recently became India’s youngest-ever gold medalist at the 2026 Asian Games.
Sooryavanshi appeared in India’s two games at continental even, returning with scores of 21-ball 38 against Sri Lanka in the semifinal and 9-ball 15 in the final. He batted at No. 3 in both fixtures.
However, Pujara chose to stick with the T20 World Cup-winning top-three combination of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan. Skipper Shreyas Iyer and vice-captain Tilak Varma feature in the middle order, followed by two seam-bowling all-rounders in Shivam Dube and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Pujara named Axar Patel as the spin-bowling all-rounder while Kuldeep Yadav is the premier spinner in the playing XI.
With Jasprit Bumrah rested for the West Indies T20Is, Pujara opted to go with Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav to lead the pace attack.
India enter the T20I series on the back of a gold medal win at the Asian Games. Almost the same set of players featured in the competition even as the Men in Blue, led by Shubman Gill, faced the West Indies in a three-match ODI series during the same window.
Cheteshwar Pujara’s preferred India playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (WK), Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh