West Indies bat; Jason Holder returns, Shardul Thakur debuts
West Indies chose to bat v India
West Indies won the toss in Hyderabad and decided to bat, but they received a boost even before that. Jason Holder, who had missed the last Test with injury, walked out for the toss. Surprisingly Kemar Roach, back in India after missing the first game because of his grandmother's death, did not make it to the XI. Instead, West Indies bolstered their spin department by bringing in Jomel Warrican alongside Devendra Bishoo.
India resisted the temptation of playing the same XI for only the second time in 42 Tests under Virat Kohli. Mohammed Shami, who had played all five Tests in England, was rested, making Shardul Thakur the fifth Indian Test debutant this year. India, who had named their shortlist of 12 on the eve of the game, didn't use the opportunity to take a look at either Mayank Agarwal or Hanuma Vihari, both contenders to go to Australia.
West Indies: 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Sunil Ambris, 5 Shimron Hetmeyer, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt.), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Jomel Warrican, 11 Shannon Gabriel
India: 1 KL Rahul, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav