India bring in Washington Sundar and opt to bat; Croes in for Netherlands
Back from the slower surface of Colombo, India went back to Arshdeep Singh in place of Kuldeep Yadav
ESPNcricinfo staff
Feb 18, 2026, 1:27 PM • 5 hrs ago
Axar Patel was rested for India's last league game • Getty Images
India opt to bat vs Netherlands
India won their first toss in four in the T20 World Cup and decided to bat first, wanting to flex their batting muscle and also preparing the bowlers for the worst-case scenario of bowling in the dew against South Africa in their Super Eights match on Sunday.
Unlike India's opponents in the first three matches, Netherlands would have batted first had they won the toss, so India have won the one that really mattered because in the first three matches, they got what they wanted even after losing the toss.
Back from the slower surface of Colombo, India went back to Arshdeep Singh in place of Kuldeep Yadav, but also chose to rest Axar Patel to give some game time to the offspin allrounder Washington Sundar.
Netherlands made one change, strengthening their batting by bringing in Noah Croes for fast bowler Fred Klaasen.
India were already through to the Super Eights, and Netherlands, with one win out of three, didn't have any chance to go through.
India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Netherlands: 1 Michael Levitt, 2 Max O'Dowd, 3 Bas de Leede, 4 Colin Ackermann, 5 Scott Edwards (capt & wk), 6 Zach Lion-Cachet, 7 Noah Croes, 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Aryan Dutt, 10 Roelof van der Merwe, 11 Kyle Klein
