Virat Kohli not playing: The former Indian captain isn’t part of their Playing XI at the Eden Gardens tonight.
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During the third T20I of the ongoing West Indies’ tour of India in Kolkata, West Indies captain Kieron Pollard has won the toss and chose to field in a bid to register their first victory of the season.
“We are going to bowl first. Nothing much has changed in these last two games, the ball comes onto the bat nicely. When we look at the two games that we lost, we have batted well but we faltered during our fielding and bowling at the death. It is also an opportunity for the guys to have a taste of the conditions and see what they can offer,” Pollard told Star Sports at the toss.
The visitors have made as many as four changes to their Playing XI bringing in batter Shai Hope, all-rounders Fabian Allen and Dominic Drakes and spinner Hayden Walsh for batter Brandon King, all-rounder Odean Smith, spinner Akeal Hosein and fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell.
Why is Virat Kohli not playing vs West Indies?
India captain Rohit Sharma also appeared to be inclined towards batting first at the Eden Gardens tonight. While Sharma laid emphasis on keeping his players mentally and physically fresh for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, he also refrained from thinking too far ahead right now.
“Feels good to bat first given that we did well in the last game. There is a lot of cricket ahead of us and the challenge for the World Cup would be to make sure we are mentally and physically fresh. We have an eye on that but at the moment everything looks fine and we are just taking it one game at a time,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.
Much like the visitors, the hosts have also made four changes to their Playing XI. Batters Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer, all-rounder Shardul Thakur and debutant pacer Avesh Khan have been included for batter Virat Kohli, wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
“We have some guys missing. We have four changes – Virat [Kohli], Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], [Rishabh] Pant and [Yuzvendra] Chahal miss out. Avesh Khan makes his debut. Ruturaj [Gaikwad] and Ishan [Kishan] will open the batting,” Sharma confirmed.
Quite a gesture from Rohit to let Ishan Kishan stay on top of the order with Ruturaj Gaikwad today.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 20, 2022
It is noteworthy that the changes for India have merely been done to provide opportunities to reserve players. Kohli and Pant, in particularly, have left the bio-bubble after getting rested for this match and an imminent three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka.
