Why Ishan Kishan not playing today: India have made six changes to their Playing XI that faced England on Sunday.
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During the first ODI of India’s tour of West Indies 2022 in Port of Spain, West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran has won the toss and chose to bowl.
“We are gonna have a bowl first. There’s weather around and there will be help for the bowlers early on, hopefully we will make use of it. It’s a nice feeling, better feeling to win the toss, very happy to be here in front of my home ground,” Pooran told the host broadcaster at the toss.
“We spoke about it [frequent batting collapses], batting in partnerships, gaining momentum, it’s been tough for us, but we are up for the challenge. Every game we will try to improve.”
While West Indies would’ve liked to play with former captain Jason Holder in the Playing XI, it isn’t happening today as the 30-year old player has tested positive for COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, Jason [Holder] has Covid so he misses out. It’s pretty much the same guys who played in the series against Bangladesh,” Pooran added.
Why Ishan Kishan not playing today vs West Indies?
Much like Pooran, India captain Shikhar Dhawan was also looking to bowl first at Queen’s Park Oval on Friday. “We were thinking of batting second, the weather looks like it will rain later on and the wicket is sticky but we are happy to bat first,” Dhawan told the host broadcaster at the toss.
Coming on the back of a 2-1 series victory in England, India have made as many as six changes to their Playing XI which had played at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Not part of a 16-member ODI squad for this tour, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja (left out of Playing XI due to a knee niggle) and Mohammed Shami have been replaced by Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur.
Sanju Samson (WK) 🇮🇳
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) July 22, 2022
As far as incoming players are concerned, Iyer was a certainty due to his higher rank in the pecking order. In-form batter Deepak Hooda, who had made his ODI debut against West Indies earlier this year, has been entrusted to resume the same middle-order role.
Having said that, a couple of slightly surprising changes have come in the form of Gill and Samson playing ahead of Gaikwad and Kishan. Playing a List A match after more than 18 months, Gill wasn’t expected to pin down Gaikwad (highest run-scorer in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021-22) for the second opening batter’s spot.
Despite being a regular in the T20I XI and having played an ODI this year, Kishan has been left out for Samson for the wicket-keeper’s slot. While no rationale has been provided for these two changes, it appears to be more of a case of providing opportunities to Gill and Samson.
