West Indies won the crucial toss in the decider at Wankhede Stadium, a ground made for chasing T20 totals in the night dew. It was a no-brainer that the unchanged visiting side chose to chase, which has resulted in five wins out of six T20Is at Wankhede. Overall in T20 cricket, since the start of 2016, sides batting first have won 12 and lost 21 matches.
India’s captain Virat Kohli said this was exactly the kind of challenge his side needed to get used to: a crunch game, batting first in a lopsided format, trying to find a way to win from there. They made two changes, investing in the bowling at the expense of an allrounder in Ravindra Jadeja. Mohammed Shami replaced him. Also in came the mystery of Kuldeep Yadav, pushing out the other wristspinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt.), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Shami
West Indies: 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Brandon King, 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Kieron Pollard (capt.), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Khary Pierre, 9 Kesrick Williams, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Hayden Walsh (ESPNCricinfo)
