India/West Indies captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl against West Indies in the first T20I of the five-match T20I series, which is taking place at Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Iyer-led side are high on confidence as they are coming off winning the gold medal in the Asian Games 2026.

However, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Vipraj Nigam and Yash Thakur are the four players missing from the Asian Games squad, while Naman Dhir, Nitish Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav come in as the five new additions for this series. India's Naman Dhir has made his debut. He received his maiden T20I cap from Arshdeep Singh.

On the other hand, West Indies defeated Shubman Gill-led India in the third ODI of the three-match series, and the Caribbean side will look to repeat the same in the opener clash of the T20I series to get a winning start. Notably, Akeal Hosein is playing his 100th T20I for West Indies.

Captains at toss

Shreyas Iyer (India Captain): We are going to bowl first, it's a mixed soil. There will be some dew as well. Travel was pretty hectic. Came last night, today we have turned up for the game but we are in the zone. They have been fabulous, they have dominated T20 cricket in the last few years. They have got brilliant batting and all-rounders. Looking forward to the contest. Ravi, Nitish, Vaibhav and one more is sitting out, Prince.

Shai Hope (West Indies): We would have bowled first as well. In India, it's always good to chase. We need to adapt to the conditions, it's different. We have new guys coming and some going out. We just got to play our best cricket. Six bowling options for us, some all-rounders as well.

India vs West Indies Playing XIs

India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Mayank Yadav.

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