THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Talking about the return of Ravindra Jadeja in the playing-eleven, Indian captain Virat Kohli said the Saurashtra left-hander had done well since the Asia Cup.
Talking about his chances in the first eleven as an all-rounder, the skipper said: "It depends. When Hardik (Pandya) is fit and fine to play, you have to see what is the combination you have to take in the World Cup.
If Hardik is fit, Kedar becomes a spin option as well. Hardik becoming fit also gives you four seaming options, along with Kedar and one more spinner. You might need one more spin option. Jadeja becomes the key there with the team balance.
"In the Test matches as well, I think he batted and bowled very well. I get a sense that he understands his game much better. He has obviously gone back and worked quite a bit, especially in white ball to come back and perform like this. He has been smart about what he wants to do with the field.
"In the field, there has been no question about his ability. With the bat and ball he has matured a lot now and brings balance to any side," Kohli said.
He said the conditions at the Greenfield stadium here were challenging and it was pleasant to see the wicket offer something for the bowlers.
To a question as to what a good par score would have been in the light of West Indies collapsing for 104 all out in today's game, he said it was difficult to predict a par score and the plan, if they got to bat first, was to keep wickets intact in the first 10 overs.
Kohli was also surprised that the West Indies chose to bat first.
"I was thinking they're going to bowl first when they won the toss. I was quite surprised they chose to bat.
Might be because the way the last game went... thinking if we put up decent runs on the board they might find it difficult to chase it down with... you know, losing confidence in the last game as a batting groupÂ… "So I can understand why they chose to bat first but it completely fell in place for us since we wanted to bowl anyway," Kohli added.