T20 World Cup: Rahul Chahar comes in for Varun Chakravarthy vs Namibia

Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bowl first against Namibia at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. The Men in Blue brought leg-spinner Rahul Chahar for an injured Varun Chakravarthy for the game. 

India and Namibia play the final game of the Super 12. It is Virat Kohli’s last game as captain and coach Ravi Shastri’s last of this tenure.

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“We’ll bowl first. The tosses have been a big factor, and when I’ve won a couple we’ll do what we wanted to do from Day 1. It’s been an honour to captain India and I’ve done my best. The shortest format has to give way for the longer formats. I’ve been grateful for the opportunity. It’s time for the next lot to take the team forward. Rohit has been looking on anyway, and Indian cricket is in good hands. Rahul Chahar comes in for Varun Chakravarthy for today’s game,” Kohli said post winning the game. 

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

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“It’s a good opportunity to go up against arguably the world’s best side, and for our batsmen to go up against that bowling line-up of theirs. It was a big thing to get through the group stages. It was something we couldn’t replicate back home, and it’s been a massive event back home and for us here. Frylinck comes into the side today, he’s fit to go. Everyone back home is quite inspired by what we have done and we had some amazing messages over the last few weeks,” Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said. 

Namibia (Playing XI): Stephan Baard, Michael van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus(c), Zane Green(w), David Wiese, Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz