After having a break from the shortest format of the game, Virat Kohli is back and will don the blue jersey again to lead his men in the three-match T20 International series against West Indies, which starts from Friday (December 6).
With a tie versus South Africa and winning the series against Bangladesh, the Men in Blue are focused and determined for their next home series, whereas Kieron Pollard-led West Indies will try to forget what happened against Afghanistan and begin with a fresh mind.
Since the T20 World Cup is coming near, the Indian team would like to see their remaining matches as an opportunity to tackle the weak points and find their best XI.
The comebacks of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Shami will pump up the bowling unit including Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar and Washington Sundar.
KL Rahul will look to cash-in the chance he got after Shikhar Dhawan’s exit from the squad due to injury. Sanju Samson, who replaced Dhawan, might have to wait as skipper Kohli will back Rishabh Pant.
West Indies, on the other hand, will miss their star players like Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, but the newly-appointed skipper Pollard would instead want his boys to focus at present and make good use of youth and experience in the squad.
Nicholas Pooran will miss the opening game as he’s still serving the three-match suspension for ball-tampering. Since Shai Hope is not a part of the team so experienced Dinesh Ramdin would be seen wearing the gloves behind the stumps.
Head to Head
Matches: 14 | India Won: 8 | West Indies Won: 5 | NR/Tie – 1
Stats
399 – Rohit Sharma is just one six away from becoming the first Indian and only the third player overall to complete 400 sixes in international cricket.
953 – Kieron Pollard needs 47 more runs to become the fourth player to complete 1000 T20I runs
2450 – Indian captain Virat Kohli needs 50 runs to complete 2500 runs in T20 internationals. He will then become the second player to reach the milestone after Rohit Sharma.
Match timings– 7 pm IST; 1:30 pm GMT
Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad
Predicted XI (India): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Predicted XI (West Indies): Evin Lewis, Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Fabian Allen, Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Kesrick Williams, Hayden Walsh Jr.
