India’s West Indies tour will move onto the T20I format after the visitors clean swept the home side 3-0 in the ODI series. The first of the five-match T20I series will be played at Tarouba in Trinidad on July 29, 2022.

The second and third T20Is will be played in Basseterre on August 1 and 2 and the last two T20Is will be played in Florida, USA on August 6 and 7.

The West Indies side is a dangerous proposition in the 20-over format with them defeating Australia at home in this format and now India will have their task cut out. Keeping this in mind, here is the COC Predicted Playing XI for the first T20I.

With KL Rahul being ruled out of the T20I series altogether, the Indian team is expected to stick to the lineup that played against England with some tweaks. Rohit Sharma is expected to continue opening the innings with Rishabh Pant.

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Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, and Hardik Pandya are slated in the middle order especially with Iyer keeping his place in Virat Kohli’s absence. India has the option of bringing in Deepak Hooda in place of Iyer as well.

Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja are expected to be the lower-order hitters, which also depends on Jadeja’s fitness. Akshar Patel might get a look in if Jadeja fails to get fit in time. For the second spinner in the XI, with Yuzvendra Chahal absent, India can go for Ravi Bishnoi or R Ashwin.

The team management can even bring in Kuldeep Yadav given the West Indies’ batters’ issues with quality spinners.

For the fast bowlers, India might go in for the tried and tested in the likes of Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and maybe Arshdeep Singh, if he is fit.

COC Predicted Team India Playing XI:

Rohit Sharma (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh