India's penultimate Group 2 match of the 2021 T20 World Cup is now underway and birthday boy Virat Kohli has finally won the toss and elected to bowl first.
This is the first toss so far in this tournament that Virat has won and with dew becoming a factor in the second innings, India being made to bat first in all matches so far has been detrimental to their performance.
The Indian team has made one change for the game, bringing in Varun C who has recovered from his niggle and left out Shardul Thakur.
"Dew is going to be a big factor. Try and restrict them and chase it down. Winning my first toss on my birthday, probably we should have played the first game on my birthday (smiles). The intensity from ball one is important. For us, it's just about keeping that intensity on for 20 overs. That's something we expect from people," Virat said at the toss.
Scotland skipper Kyle Coetzer said his playing eleven was unchanged from their 16-run loss to New Zealand. "Looks a good deck. First of all great occasion for Scottish cricket and the associates. We want to go and enjoy the day."
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah
Scotland: George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer (c), Matthew Cross (wk), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Safyaan Sharif, Alasdair Evans and Bradley Wheal
India can't afford to lose any of its remaining matches in the T20 World Cup and have to be at their best against both Scotland and Namibia. India's chances not only depend on their result in these two matches but also the clash between Afghanistan and New Zealand on 7 November.
India, the 2007 T20 World Cup winner, are currently fourth in the group with two points from three games, They are tied with Namibia at two points with a Net Run Rate (NRR) of 0.073, behind Pakistan (8 points) at the top and then New Zealand and Afghanistan.
Kohli's team needs to win both their matches handsomely and also hope that Afghanistan beat New Zealand by the barest of margins so they can catch up on NRR. Any loss would end India's qualification hopes, and if New Zealand win their remaining games then there is nothing India can do.