India’s Predicted Playing XI for the third T20I: Sportsrush presents before you India’s playing XI against Windies.

With the fate of the three-match T20I series already decided, here is another dead-rubber, a contest which will conclude the Windies’ tour of India 2018. Barring the first three ODIs, the visitors have more or less seemed out-of-sorts across formats.

That being said, the last T20I at Chennai will present them with a final chance to end things on a high note. India, on the other hand, would be looking to experiment a bit in the absence of three key fast bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav.

There is no hiding to the fact that fans in Chennai will miss the presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni for this match. Having said that, they are still expected to come in large numbers to witness a match an inconsequential match such as this.

India’s Predicted Playing XI for first T20I vs Windies

1. Top-order – With Shikhar Dhawan not been among the runs in throughout this series, the match could be a perfect opportunity for someone like him to bat freely. However, one still believes that giving a go to Shreyas Iyer in the middle-order would prove to be an interesting ploy.

If that happens, Lokesh Rahul can bat at his usual position of opening the batting alongside captain Rohit Sharma. In such a scenario, one would look forward to whether the team management will send Iyer or Manish Pandey at No. 3.

With the latter warming the bench for quite some time now and not getting enough opportunities, it might well be a wise decision to promote him up the order.

1. Middle-order – With scores of 1 and 5 at Kolkata and Lucknow respectively, 21-year old Rishabh Pant hasn’t been able to stand tall on the chances to given to him. For someone who is being looked upon as a potential future powerhouse in the middle-order in this format, the team management would be expecting better returns from him.

In Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya, India have considerable options as far as batting in the middle-order is concerned. With all of them possessing the ability to up the ante from the word go, on expects India to post a formidable total in the third T20I.

1. Bowlers – In which will be a like-for-like replacement, India are highly likely to field Siddarth Kaul in place of Bumrah. However, if conditions are sans dew, you ever know if they decide to play an extra spinner in Washington Sundar ahead of Kaul on a supporting wicket.

Yuzvendra Chahal, who missed the last ODI and the first two T20Is, will lead the spin bowling department in the absence of Kuldeep Yadav. Citing the increasing competition in the team in mind, the 28-year old bowler would be looking to register an impact-generating bowling spell.

India’s Predicted Playing XI for first T20I against Windies – 1) Rohit Sharma (c) 2) Lokesh Rahul 3) Manish Pandey 4) Rishabh Pant 5) Shreyas Iyer 6) Dinesh Karthik (wk) 7) Krunal Pandya 8) Bhuvneshwar Kumar 9) Siddarth Kaul/Washington Sundar 10) Yuzvendra Chahal 11) Khaleel Ahmed

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