Dublin: India captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bat first against Ireland in the second and final T20I, here on Tuesday.
India made three changes in their team as Sanju Samson, Harshal Patel and Ravi Bishnoi came in place of Ruturaj Gaikwad (injured), Avesh Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal respectively for this game.
“We want to bat first. The wicket looks alright and the weather looks awesome and sunny as well. When we bowled first we expected the wicket to do much more than it did. But credit to the boys for keeping them down to that total by realising which balls to bowl,” said Pandya at the toss.
“We have three changes — Ruturaj misses out because of a niggle, Sanju comes in. Harshal comes in place of Avesh and Bishnoi comes in for Chahal,” he added.
On the other hand, Andrew Balbirnie-led Ireland fielded an unchanged XI for the final game of the series.
“We were going to have a bowl. It is always nice in T20 to chase but we’re going to have to do well with the ball to keep these guys to a low total. If we put in a good performance, hopefully, we’ll get a bit closer. It was Craig Young’s 50th T20I and we were happy to hand him a special cap. We’re playing the same team,” said Balbirnie.
Playing XI:
Ireland: Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie(c), Gareth Delany, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), George Dockrell, Mark Adair, Andy McBrine, Craig Young, Joshua Little, Conor Olphert
India: Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan(wk), Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Umran Malik
(IANS)
