India have won the toss and asked Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto to bat first in the first T20 match of three match series at New Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium in Gwalior on Sunday.
For India, Mayank Yadav and seam allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy were handed caps before the toss, and were going to be called into action immediately as India chose to field after winning the toss. Tilak Verma, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana missed out from the Indian squad.
Sanju Samson was likely to open with Abhishek Sharma in an unusual India XI with up to eight bowling options. Riyan Parag and Abhishek were the two part-time spin options to go with seam allrounders in Hardik Pandya and Reddy. Varun Chakravarthy made his international comeback after having last played in November 2021 as India's lead spinner in this XI.
Playing their first T20I since the World Cup in the West Indies, Bangladesh went in with a more standard combination of three specialist fast bowlers: Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman. Opening batter Parvez Hossain Emon replaced Tanzid Hasan from the last XI Bangladesh had played. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and legspinner Rishad Hossain made up the spin attack.