West Indies chose to bowl vs South Africa
Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo will all appear together in a T20I after six years on being named in the West Indies XI to play South Africa in the first of five T20Is in Grenada. Persistent rain did not stop the toss from happening on time and West Indies opted for their attack to make first use of conditions.
The home side loaded five quicks and two spinners, and Pollard decided that "with a bit of weather around", he preferred to chase. Temba Bavuma, who has recovered from a hip injury and a dislocated finger to captain the side for the first time, would also have preferred to bowl first, but his three-seam, two-spin attack will have to wait for their chance.
South Africa went in without a seam-bowling allrounder, and opted to bench both Andile Phehlukwayo and Wiaan Mulder in favour of their Test pace trio of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi. That also meant no room for Sisanda Magala, but both George Linde and Tabraiz Shamsi were included in the XI. West Indies chose Andrew Fletcher ahead of Lendl Simmons and included left-armer Obed McCoy ahead of Fidel Edwards.
West Indies: 1 Andre Fletcher, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Kieron Pollard (capt), 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Jason Holder, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Fabian Allen, 10 Obed McCoy, 11 Kevin Sinclair
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Temba Bavuma (capt), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 George Linde, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent
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