India captain Rohit Sharma says the team will take the field with three pacers and two spinners for the first Test against West Indies at the Windsor Park in Dominica.
The venue is playing host to a Test for the first time in over six years since Pakistan’s 101-run win over West Indies here in May 2017.
A total of 38 wickets fell during the contest of which 20 went to pacers and 18 were taken by spinners. Keeping that in mind, the tourists will have a couple of specialist tweakers for their first match of the latest ICC World Test Championship cycle.
India have Ravichandran Ashwin (offbreak), Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel (both left-arm orthodox) as the spin options in their squad.
“Looking at the wicket, it seems we will be playing two spinners and three seamers,” Rohit told reporters on match eve. “We have seen in the last Test match played here in 2017 lot of wickets were taken by spinners. Having trained here for few days, we saw there’s some bounce as well so we have picked the combination.”
Rohit also confirmed that rookie Yashasvi Jaiswal will be making his debut and open alongside him with Shubman Gill batting at No. 3 – a spot left vacant after Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped following WTC final.
Rohit says Gill himself was keen on taking up the spot having so far opened in Test cricket as he feels there he can better serve the team batting at No. 3.
“As far as batting positions are concerned, Gill will bat at No. 3 as He wanted to bat at the spot. He had discussion with Rahul bhai that he has played all his cricket at No. 3 and No. 4 and can contribute better for the team from No. 3. For us, it’s also better since we get left-right combo,” Rohit said.
“This is what we are trying and hopefully, this becomes a long-term thing as we have been desperate for a left-hander for several years and we have found one. Let’s hope he (Jaiswal) performs really well and makes that spot his own,” he added.
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