Last minute injury rules Hardik Pandya out of T20I against Windies
Hardik Pandya has been forced to sit out of the one-off T20I between India and West Indies as he picked up an injury just before the toss. However, Kuldeep Yadav will make his debut in the shortest format of the game for India, today, while Rishabh Pant will get his first game of the tour.
India suffered a minor setback just before the last game of the tour, as in-form all-rounder Hardik Pandya wobbled off the ground with an injury during a practice session that forced the organisers to delay the toss as Indian skipper Virat Kohli had to make a quick change.
But it came as a good news for Rishabh Pant, who finally got the chance to don the Indian colours for the first time on the Windies tour while Kohli decided to play Dinesh Karthik over in-form Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order. Kuldeep Yadav was handed the debut cap and he would start his T20 career alongside Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Yuvraj Singh will continue to watch the match from the sidelines as he was reported unfit for the match while MS Dhoni retained his position behind the stumps. West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl first as Chris Gayle made a comeback for the hosts after a period of 15 months.