T20 World Cup clock ticking for favourites India vs West Indies

The focus is clear for India and West Indies in the upcoming five-match T20I series to be spread across Tarouba, Basseterre and Lauderhill, Florida over the next nine days.

With the T20 World Cup less than three months away, time is ticking to iron out chinks and fine-tune the personnel and possible tactics for the mega event in Australia. In corporate lingo, ‘project mapping’ is what India and West Indies – at different spectrums in T20Is as collective units and on the ICC rankings in 2022 – are looking at doing in these five games.

India are 12-3 from 15 completed T20Is this year – sweeping West Indies and Sri Lanka 3-0 and Ireland 2-0, winning in England 2-1 and tying with South Africa 2-2 at home – and 15-3 since the end of their disappointing run at the 2021 T20 World Cup if you add in the 3-0 defeat of New Zealand last November. Rohit Sharma, their preferred captain, is back to lead the squad after skipping the ODI leg of the tour and also buttressing the squad are Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and R Ashwin.

Unlike England, who do not play any one-day cricket before the T20 World Cup starts in October, and thus can channel all their energies into sorting out their best combinations in T20Is, India do have a couple 50-overs series on the horizon which means more chopping and changing. This means that they need to use very T20I they play to get their seniors into best form and ensure the fringe selections for the World Cup also get opportunities. Despite winning the ODIs 3-0, the fact that India’s bowlers conceded over 300 to this West Indies side in successive matches is worrisome, even factoring in the absence of their two striker bowlers.

West Indies, beaten in six successive ODIs at home recently and by Ireland 1-2 at the start of 2022, are the underdogs at home despite beating Bangladesh 2-0 and England 3-2 before that in January-February. When they met India away in February the result was a 0-3 defeat and prior to that, their visit to Pakistan last December resulted in an identical loss in the T20Is. Such inconsistent form is an extension of West Indies’ poor campaign at last year’s T20 World Cup and brings the focus on their shaky batting, in particular.

TEAM NEWS

A day before the series starts, Cricket West Indies has not announced a T20I squad yet.

For India, Rohit is back and will open with one of Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant, depending on what the team think-tank wants to achieve from these five games. Pant did the job in England recently with mixed results, but the intent was clear: India want one opener to tee off hard during the Powerplay. Kishan, also a wicketkeeper, can do this too but the Pant experiment may continue for a few more games.

With Kohli again not around, Deepak Hooda has another series to bat at No 3 and stake a claim for the World Cup. Shreyas Iyer, despite scores of 54, 63 and 44 in three ODIs on tour, may have to sit out a few matches with Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik in the middle order. Ravindra Jadeja missed all three ODIs with a niggle and there is no clarity yet about his availability, which suggests that Axar Patel will hold down his spot.

With Yuzvendra Chahal rested, there is another big opportunity for the legspinners Ravi Bishnoi and Kuldeep Yadav given the conditions in the Caribbean for the first three T20Is.

India likely XI (first game): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Rishabh Pant (wk), 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Arshdeep Singh

PITCH & CONDITIONS

Trinidad and St Kitts will host the first three T20I matches of the series and the last two will be played in Florida, USA. The Brian Lara Stadium at Tarouba has not hosted an international match yet, whereas Warner Park at Basseterre has had Tests, ODIs and T20Is played there. In T20Is at Warner Park, only once has a team crossed 150 – when England made 182/6 in 2019 and won by 137 runs. Pace has been more successful than spin at this venue, but more of the crafty, roll-your-fingers-over-the-ball variety such as honed by the likes of Kesrick Williams (12 wickets), Kieron Pollard (7), Carlos Brathwaite (5), Chris Jordan (4) and Dwayne Bravo (3).

The Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill is the unofficial home of international cricket in the USA, having hosted 12 T20Is and six ODIs. It has a reputation of being a high-scoring venue, given the track and small boundaries. In T20Is, the 200-mark has been crossed thrice with India losing to West Indies by one run in 2016 when chasing a target of 246.

PREDICTION

While West Indies are a slightly tougher opponent in T20Is, India have form on their side and thus momentum. Given their batting might, expect Rohit’s team to take the series 4-1, if not 5-0.