NEW YORK, United States (AFP)— India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field against Ireland in the teams’ T20 World Cup opener in New York on Wednesday.

Rohit’s decision to bowl came after both Sri Lanka and South Africa found runs hard to come by Monday in the first competitive match on a sluggish surface at a Long Island ground built specially for the tournament.

India have won all seven of their previous T20s against Ireland.

They are bidding for their second T20 World Cup, with India having won the inaugural edition in 2007.

This tournament will be Rahul Dravid’s last as India coach. The former Test batsman’s contract runs out at the end of the month and he will not reapply for the job, after almost three years in charge.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wkt), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

Ireland: Paul Stirling (capt), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wkt), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Josh Little, Ben White

Umpires: Alex Wharf (ENG), Chris Gaffaney (NZL)

TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)

Match referee: David Boon (AUS)