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The Indian cricket team is all set for a T20I series against the West Indies national cricket team starting tonight at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Ahead of the India vs West Indies 1st T20I, BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla sounded confident and showed trust in the young players of the T20I team.
India will start the 5-match T20I series after cleanly sweeping West Indies in a recently played three-match ODI series. The visitors batted nicely in the 50-over format, but they lacked quality in their bowling. The star-studded Indian batting line-up will again look to exploit the bowling attack of the away team.
Multiple changes in India's T20I squad for the West Indies series
Unlike the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, match conditions will be different here on Indian grounds. The Men in Blue made multiple changes in their T20I team as well ahead of the Twenty20 series against the Caribbeans. Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Vipraj Nigam and Yash Thakur are the four players missing from the Asian Games squad. In their place, the team management has named Naman Dhir, Nitish Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav as the latest additions.
In Japan, the tracks were mostly friendly with a lot of cracks. Therefore, the Shreyas Iyer-led team mostly used Jasprit Bumrah as a lone fast bowler in their bowling line-up along with the slow and spin bowlers. In this series, the home team is likely to place at least two fast bowlers in their playing combinations. Arshdeep Singh is likely to play with either Prince Yadav or Mayank Yadav.
Rajeev Shukla on the India vs West Indies 1st T20I match
West Indies can pose a major threat to the Indian cricket team as they have some serious talent across all of their departments. The former World T20I champions have already shown their batting strength in the ODI series through the batting of John Campbell, Shai Hope, Amir Jangoo, and Justin Greaves. Hope will be in charge again to lead the team in the shortest format of the series.
"I am very confident that we will win today's match. India has been winning continuously. It's just that the Punjab match that day went a little wrong. I am very confident that our new boys from T20 will play an amazing game today."
"I think the Indian team has won the Asian Cup gold medal. Yes, they have won it. The same team has come here. Those boys have also come. The T20 team is very strong,' BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla told the media ahead of the India vs West Indies 1st T20I in Lucknow.
VIDEO | Ahead of first India-WI T20I, BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla says, "We have a very strong team, and I hope we win today's match, as India has been winning consistently. Our young T20 players will certainly put up a remarkable performance today. The team that won the gold medal at the Asian Games has returned, so our T20 team is very strong." (Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/bIyFWTfmBd)
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 6, 2026
Naman Dhir makes his T20I debut for India
Meanwhile, the Indian team management has handed Naman Dhir his debut cap for the T20I format. Dhir made his debut for the India national cricket team during the ODI competition in this series. India won the ODI series by 2-1 before heading for the T20I contest.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been kept on the bench for tonight's match as Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma will open the innings for Team India.
