Lucknow – Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and deciding Twenty20 international against West Indies in Lucknow in Sunday.
The Afghans bounced back to win the last game by 41 runs on Saturday to level the three-match series at 1-1 with Karim Janat taking five wickets and scoring 26 runs.
Afghanistan, who play their home games in India since 2015 due to security issues back home, have retained their winning XI.
“We would like to bat first. We did it well last game and want to repeat that today,” Rashid said at the toss.
“Anything in the 150-160 range is what we were looking for yesterday but on this kind of a track 145-plus scores is also tricky.”
The Kieron Pollard-led West Indies made three changes to their starting line-up with fit-again Lendl Simmons, Shai Hope and Khary Pierre making the cut.
Hope comes straight in to the XI after being added to the squad as cover for injured Denesh Ramdin.
“We always come with certain processes but just didn’t work out well yesterday,” said Pollard. “Hope to learn from the past and correct our mistakes.”
Teams
Afghanistan: Rashid Khan (capt), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Karim Janat, Asghar Afghan, Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
West Indies: Kieron Pollard (capt), Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (wk), Lendl Simmons, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Kesrick Williams, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Khary Pierre
Umpires: Ahmed Shah Pakteen (AFG) and Izatullah Safi (AFG)
TV umpire: Ahmed Shah Durrani (AFG)
Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)
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