T20 World Cup: India vs Scotland, Toss Update: Birthday boy Virat Kohli elects to field

Dubai, Nov 5: Birthday boy India captain Virat Kohli finally managed to win a toss and elected to field first in the Group 2 Super 12 encounter against Scotland in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 here on Friday (November 5).

After losing six tosses in international games (3 Tests, and 3 T20Is) on the trot, the Indian captain turned seventh time lucky as the coin landed in his favour. India have replaced pacer Shardul Thakur with mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy - who has been wicketless so far in two games in the tournament.

Kohli invited Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer to bat first in what isn't just a must-win game but the Men In Blue also need to win by a big margin to further boost their net run rate. It will be crucial for Team India to increase their NRR because New Zealand and Afghanistan are ranked higher against them in the points table as of now.

After winning the toss, Kohli - who turned 33 today - said: "We are going to bowl first. Dew is going to be a big factor. Try and restrict them and chase it down convincingly if the situation allows us to. 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 and people have done that over the years as well. Shardul makes way for Varun. He is back fit, so he will be our third spinner."

Scot skipper Kyle Coetzer expressed his delight at playing Team India and said the team would have been happy either way, in terms of toss.

"Looks a good deck. Happy to go either way. First of all great occasion for us and Scottish cricket and the associate game. We are playing against some of the best players from the world here and in the last couple of games too. India is another special occasion for us. We have got to go out there, enjoy ourselves and try and express ourselves as much as possible. Same team," Koetzer said.

Playing XIs:

Scotland: George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer(c), Matthew Cross(w), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Safyaan Sharif, Alasdair Evans, Bradley Wheal.

India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.