Chanderpaul Out, Aaron Debut as West Indies Opt to Bat

Mumbai: West Indies captain Darren Sammy won the toss and chose to bat against India in third Test at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.

For India, Virat Kohli has been chosen over Rohit Sharma to replace Yuvraj Singh and Varun Aaron makes his Test debut in place of Umesh Yadav who has been rested.

For the West Indies, Shivnarine Chanderpaul is out due to injury and replaced by Kieran Powell. And a fit-again Ravi Rampaul replaces Kemar Roach who is down with gastroenteritis.

All eyes will once again be on Sachin Tendulkar, who is just one short of his elusive 100th international century. Having missed the chance to get it in the first two Tests, he will be keen to finally achieve the remarkable milestone on his home turf.

The pitch for the third Test may not be as conducive to spin as the first two Test tracks and the slow bowlers need to prey on the patience of the West Indian batsmen to prise out errors.

West Indies' chances of posing a challenge in the final Test took a big blow as their most experienced player Shivnarine Chanderpaul was ruled out due to a calf strain. There was another forced change as their fast bowler Kemar Roach was down with gastroenteritis. While they had an adequate replacement for Roach in Ravi Rampaul, the loss of Chanderpaul weakened the batting.

Teams

India: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Varun Aaron.

West Indies: Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kieran Powell, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Carlton Baugh (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards, Devendra Bishoo.