Toss Namibia chose to bowl vs India
Gerhard Erasmus, the Namibia captain, won the toss and chose to bowl to the accompaniment of loud cheers from a Delhi crowd eager to watch India‘s batters in action. Erasmus suggested that dew could come into play later in the evening and make batting more straightforward in the second innings.
Three members of India’s squad were battling illness or injury worries in the lead-up to this game. One of them, Jasprit Bumrah, returned to the side for his first game of the tournament, replacing Mohammed Siraj who played India’s tournament-opener against USA. Abhishek Sharma, discharged from hospital on Wednesday and recovering from a stomach bug, missed out, which reopened a door for Sanju Samson at the top of the order.
Washington Sundar, who has recovered from a rib injury and trained with the squad on Wednesday, did not find a place in the XI.
Namibia made two changes to the side that lost to Netherlands, bringing in an extra fast bowler in Ben Shikongo for the legspin-bowling allrounder Willem Myburgh, and replacing Dylan Leicher with Malan Kruger in the middle order.
India: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Namibia: 1 Louren Steenkamp, 2 Jan Frylinck, 3 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 4 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 5 JJ Smit, 6 Zane Green (wk), 7 Ruben Trumpelmann, 8 Malan Kruger, 9 Ben Shikongo, 10 Bernard Scholtz, 11 Max Heingo.N