Naman Dhir makes his T20I debut; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was left out as India decided to beat the West Indies

Naman Dhir makes his T20I debut (Image: BCCI/X) Naman Dhir makes his T20I debut against West Indies in the opening match of the five-match series, while teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was left out of India’s playing XI in Lucknow.Dhir, who made his ODI debut on September 27, was handed his first T20I cap by Arshdeep Singh before the match. It is also a landmark for West Indian spinner Akeal Hosein, who is playing his 100th T20I.

Vaibhav is missing

A notable omission from the Indian XI is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who featured in the Asian Games gold medal match against Pakistan. The youngster is still waiting to make his India debut on home soil.Captain Shreyas Iyer confirmed that India have opted to bowl first, with the dew expected to come into play later in the evening.“We will go bowling first. It’s a mixed ground. There will be some dew as well. The travel has been quite hectic. It came last night, today we turned up for the match but we are in the zone,” Iyer said at the toss.He also praised West Indies’ T20 pedigree, adding that the visitors have “great batting and all-round talent”.

Hope: West Indies wanted to bowl first

West Indies captain Shai Hope said his team would also prefer to chase, especially as the dew is likely to make things easier for the batting side later in the game.“It’s usually much better to chase in India, especially with the dew coming into play,” Hope said.He stressed the importance of adapting quickly to different conditions and said that West Indies will rely on their experienced players to support the younger members of the team.

Five changes for India

India made five changes to the Asian Games squad. Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Vipraj Nigam and Yash Thakur are the four players missing from the Asian Games XI, while Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav are the new additions to the squad for the series.However, only Dhir, Kuldeep and Mayank are part of the XI for the opening T20I.India Playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Mayank Yadav.West Indies Playing XI: Shai Hope (week/c), Kamil Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Matthew Forde, Roston Chase, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Springer, Shamar Joseph