India will take on the West Indies in the first T20I at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Tuesday. Shreyas Iyer’s team recently won the Asian Games gold medal after beating arch-rivals Pakistan in the summit clash.
The Men in Blue will look to continue their rich form and deliver the goods. The pitches in the ODI series were the talk of the town and it would be interesting to note what kind of tracks will be provided for T20Is. The Lucknow pitch is not known to be a high-scoring contest as the spinners mostly get assistance.
Abhishek Sharma will be one of the biggest threats at the top of the order. The left-hander recently played an important role in India’s Asian Games campaign and scored 61 runs in the final against Pakistan. Furthermore, Tilak Varma also enters the series with confidence after he scored a crucial knock of 51 runs off 22 balls against Pakistan.
Jasprit Bumrah has been rested for the series and Arshdeep Singh will be the pack leader.
On the other hand, the T20Is is a format in which the West Indies have excelled over the years and would back themselves to beat the hosts. The visitors will welcome back players like Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd, who were not part of the ODI squad and the trio can certainly turn a match on its head with their blistering batting.
Head to Head: Matches: 31, Won by India: 20, Won by West Indies: 10, No result: 1.
India’s T20I squad: Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Naman Dhir
West Indies T20I squad: Shai Hope (C & WK), Jewel Andrew, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Kamil Pooran, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Quentin Sampson, Romario Shepherd, Shamar Springer
