India vs West Indies, 2nd T20I: West Indies Opt to Bowl in Thiruvananthapuram

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard won the coin toss and opted to bowl first against India in the second T20I at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.

FOLLOW LIVE: India vs West Indies, 2nd T20I

While India have gone with the same playing XI which took the field in Hyderabad, West Indies have made one change, bringing in Nicholas Pooran in place of Denesh Ramdin.

“If you look at it, we want to come out and have a feel of it. We need to restrict them to a low total. We can’t be critical on the batsmen, everytime you score 200, you win a game. Hopefully we come out and do things right today. We have some plans for the batsmen, we need to keep them from scoring. We need to execute our yorkers, we have been practising. Pressure is playing in front of thousands,” Pollard said after winning the toss.

India captain Virat Kohli said he would have bowled as well but feels the pitch will be pretty good to bat first as well.

“We would have bowled first as well, dew might be a factor. Toss is an uncontrollable. It’s a nice and hard pitch, much drier. I think it should be a pretty good pitch to bat on during the first half. It’s not a worry, we haven’t defended too many totals in the past. We might not have reacted well. It’s a mindset thing, it’s all about belief. Every game counts, we’ll try to do things that we have not done in the past, we’ll try to execute those,” he said.

India lead the three-match series 1-0 and will be aiming to make it an unassailable 2-0 while for the West Indies, it’s do or die clash. The hosts won the high-scoring series opening encounter in Hyderabad on Friday thanks to Kohli’s career-best 94 not out as they overhauled the target of 208 with eight deliveries to spare.

The Greenfield pitch though is expected to be not as batting-friendly as the Hyderabad one with spinners predicted to leave their impact tonight.  The third and final match of the series will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on December 11.

Playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal

West Indies: Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis, Brandon King, Nicholas Pooran(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Kieron Pollard(c), Jason Holder, Khary Pierre, Hayden Walsh, Sheldon Cottrell, Kesrick Williams