New Delhi: An unchanged India have won the toss and elected to bat first in the second and final Test against the West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday.
India are leading the two-match series 1-0 after thrashing the West Indies by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the first Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Shubman Gill, who finally won his first toss as India’s Test captain, said his aim to bat first was due to get a big total early on a pitch expected to aid spin as the match progresses. “The wicket looks good to bat on day one. We want to pile on the runs.”
“To be able to repeat performances and to be able to have the same intensity in every match that we play. Something that we often speak about and that’s what we are trying to look for in this test match as well.”
“Honestly, not much. I am still the same person but definitely have more responsibilities now. But I like responsibilities and a very exciting future for me (on being elevated across all formats),” he said.
West Indies have brought in Anderson Phillip and Tevin Imlach in place of Brandon King and Johann Layne in their playing eleven. Skipper Roston Chase said bringing in pacer Phillip was due to him being good in making early strikes with the new ball, while keeper-batter Imlach is regarded as a better batter against spinners in the set-up.
“We’d have batted first, pitch looks dry, so not much worried. We had some meetings, some deep discussions about our batting. Want to bat 90 overs and gotta play every ball on its merit for long time. Imlach is from Guyana and is used to these sort of surfaces,” he said.
In the pitch report, Ian Bishop described it as a ‘pitch of two halves’ – live grass patches holding the deck together and bald areas set to being spinners into play as the game progresses. Deep Dasgupta felt the pitch could be two-paced in nature, despite giving an initial patchy look.
Playing XIs
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj
West Indies: John Campbell, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Alick Athanaze, Shai Hope, Roston Chase (captain), Tevin Imlach (wk), Justin Greaves, Jomel Warrican, Khary Pierre, Anderson Phillip, and Jayden Seales
(IANS)
