"You want to play Yashasvi Jaiswal but where will he play?" - Aakash Chopra on whether India should make any changes for 2nd T20I vs West Indies
Aakash Chopra feels India won't be able to field Yashasvi Jaiswal in their playing XI in the second T20I against the West Indies as there is no vacant spot for him.
The second game of the five-match series will be played in Providence, Guyana, on Sunday, August 6. The Men in Blue fielded Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan as their two openers in the series opener and will likely stick to the same combination.
While previewing the second T20I in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that India should neither change their batting order nor include Jaiswal in the XI. He elaborated:
"Can there be a change from the Indian team's viewpoint? It has been a point of discussion that Sanju Samson should come at No. 3, and SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) should be moved to No. 4, Tilak Varma to No. 5 or No. 6 and Hardik (Pandya) at No. 5."
The former Indian opener added:
"Why should you do that? It's going fine the way it is. In my opinion, there isn't a lot of scope for change. Only one batter is sitting outside, that is Yashasvi Jaiswal. You want to play Yashasvi Jaiswal but where will he play?"
The Indian batting lineup failed to fire in the first T20I in Trinidad. Tilak Varma (39 off 22) was the only top-six batter to have a strike rate of more than 100 and the rest of the batters will hope to give a better account of themselves on Sunday.
"Should you change the team after one match?" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra believes India should change their XI only if the conditions are drastically different. He explained:
"Should you change the team after one match, unless you see the pitch and it has a lot of grass, so you play all fast bowlers, or else it is an extremely turning pitch, so you drop a fast bowler."
Chopra expects India to field an unchanged XI in Guyana. He stated:
"Other than that, why would you make a change in the XI? So if everybody is fit and available for selection, I feel India will play an identical team. I am not even saying almost identical. The team that played in the last match, the same team can play here."
India fielded three spinners and two seamers in the first T20I, with Hardik Pandya as the batting all-rounder. There are unlikely to add another spinner to the mix but might replace a spinner with an additional seamer or batter based on the conditions and the team's balance.