Indian skipper Rohit Sharma made just one change for the third T20I of the five-T20I series against West Indies. Rohit included Deepak Hooda into the side in place of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Hooda made a name for himself in the T20I arena with hundred against Ireland. He followed it up with a decent score against England as well in the first T20I of the three-T20I series.
After winning the toss and opting to field first, Rohit also addressed Indian batters’ vulnerability against left-arm pacers of late. Obed McCoy took record-breaking six-fer in the previous T20I to restrict India to 138 in the previous T20I.
“The guys have been given the chance to express themselves, so the high-risk shots come into play, but we do understand that. I don't know about that (if India has a weakness against left-arm pace). As a team we want to improve in all aspects of the game, but in the last few series, the left-arm seamers have done well against us. I don't see that as a concern. It's not that the guys are struggling, it happens when you're trying to score quickly. But we do need to understand when we come up against certain bowlers, we just want to come out and express ourselves, that's what we want to continue doing,” Rohit said at the coin toss.
Nicholas Pooran made just one change to his side. The wicketkeeper-batter replaced Odean Smith with Dominic Drakes.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,
Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh
West Indies Playing XI: Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Nicholas Pooran(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Devon Thomas(w), Rovman Powell, Dominic Drakes, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy
