The Indian team will face West Indies in a series of three T20I matches starting February 16 onwards with all the matches to be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The second T20I will be played on February 18 and the last on February 20.
India is coming off a 3-0 whitewash of the visitors in the ODI series, but those matches were played on a sluggish Ahmedabad wicket, while Kolkata provides the West Indies pace bowlers with some pace and bounce to work with.
Ahead of this exciting series, TEAM COC presents the Predicted Team India Playing XI for the first T20I
Given that KL Rahul will miss the entire T20I series due to a hamstring niggle, expect either Ruturaj Gaikwad or Ishan Kishan to open the innings with captain Rohit Sharma. The team management has picked Ishan as their third opener, so his chances of playing in the match are more.
Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and possibly Shreyas Iyer will form the crux of the middle order. However, given the need for all-rounders in the team, expect either Shreyas or Suryakumar to make way for a player who can bowl and bat as well.
This means either Venkatesh Iyer or Deepak Hooda, or even both might get a chance to play in the first T20I. Both are big hitters of the ball and while Hooda provides a second spin option on the Kolkata ground, which is prone to dew in the evenings, Venkatesh might be picked to share the fifth bowler duties with Hooda as a medium pacer.
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Two of Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Deepak Chahar will use any swing available to trouble the West Indies batters upfront and also provide some depth to the Indian batting as well. Mohammed Siraj will most likely be the third seamer, while India can go for the extreme pace of Avesh Khan as well.
One of Yuzvendra Chahal or Kuldeep Yadav will play as a specialist spinner, given the Windies batter’s fragility against top-quality wrist spin.
COC Predicted Team India Playing XI for the first T20I against West Indies:
Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (VC-WK), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj
