India and the West Indies have touched down in Miami, Florida for their third bilateral T20I series at the Central Broward Stadium in the USA.
Virat Kohli’s side begins their preparations for the 2020 T2OI World Cup and there is no room for MS Dhoni who is performing military service in Kashmir.
Saturday 3 August 2019 | Central Broward Stadium, Lauderhill, Florida | 16:30
To Win Match
West Indies
Draw
India
West Indies
The Windies have an intriguing balance of experienced T20I campaigners and new faces as coach Floyd Reifer begins the process of mapping a path to Australia and the defence of the Windies short format title. Reifer may not be the man in charge when that rolls around, the interim coach is the latest in a string of head coaches, a far from ideal situation.
Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard have been recalled to the squad. Narine last played in a T20I against England almost two years ago at and batting allrounder Pollard appeared last on the November on the Tour of India.
Nicholas Pooran is likely to remain the Windies number one choice keeper with uncapped Anthony Bramble coming along as backup. Bramble captained West Indies “B” to the Final of the Global T20 Tournament last year in Canada and was recently drafted into the Guyana Amazon Warriors CPL team.
John Campbell and Evin Lewis look set to open after Chris Gayle made himself unavailable for the series.
India
India have plenty of sideshows on the go at the moment with applications for the head coach job open and the BCCI believed to be considering replacing Ravi Shastri.
Young opener Prithvi Shaw admitted a doping violation and won’t be available for India until September. His absence gives experienced opening pair Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan the opportunity to establish themselves as the first choice in the shortest format.
Skipper Kohli has rubbished rumours of a rift between himself and Sharma who has acted as a stand-in for the captain when he has been rested for white-ball assignments.
Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer will duel for a place in the India middle-order in a battle to make the squad for the T20I World Cup next year. Pandey probably has the edge right now but Iyer is an exciting talent who has yet to show his best cricket on the international stage.
Matches at this venue have been very high-scoring in the past but these teams are becoming quite familiar with one another so there could be a few surprises from the crafty bowlers of both sides.
Verdict: India
Kohli’s determination to bounce back after World Cup disappointment should win the day.
