India will look to continue their dominance over the West Indies when the sides get the T20 segment of the series underway.
The shortest format offers the West Indies their best shot at pinching a series win off India on their own patch, but it won’t come easy.
India recently put England away in a T20I series away from home – and go into the series against the reigning World T20 Champions as favourites.
India v West Indies| Sunday, 4 November | Eden Gardens, Kolkata | 15:30
To Win Match
India 31/100
Tie 35/1
West Indies 5/2
India
The selectors made headlines when MS Dhoni was sidelined for the T20I series against both the West Indies at home and Australia away. Rishabh Pant comes in for the former skipper, who has been criticised for failing to judge the pace of the game during the recent ODI series win over the West Indies.
Rohit Sharma will lead the side in the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli, who has been rested with an eye on the Test series in Australia.
This series provides Shreyas Iyer and Pant an opportunity to press for a regular place in the T20I XI. Khaleel Ahmed impressed in the ODI series and shown great promise as a white-ball bowler. Another good series will do his ambitions across all formats no harm.
Dinesh Karthik returns to the side to provide experience in the middle-order, but it has been confirmed that Pant will keep wicket.
Shahbaz Nadeem’s record-breaking efforts in the Vijay Hazare Trophy have earned the 29-year-old slow left-arm bowler a call-up and a possible international debut. He took eight for 10 in 10 overs in the fixture between Rajasthan and Jharkhand in September.
It is expected to be warm and humid in Kolkata on Sunday with little chance of rain.
West Indies
The West Indies have not seen fit to keep in-form batsman Shai Hope around for the T20I series. Hope was central to the West Indies giving a good account of themselves in the ODI series, but Denesh Ramdin will take the wicketkeeping gloves while the likes of Andre Russell, Rovman Powell and Kieron Pollard will support Shimron Hetmyer.
Hetmyer has enjoyed a stellar 2018 across all three formats and the West Indies need him to keep it up in a middle-order that looks brittle.
The West Indies need Russell to do double duty for them as experienced quicks Jason Holder and Kemar Roach are rested. Carlos Brathwaite continues to lead the side in the shortest format.
The West Indies were dealt a massive blow to their hopes in the series with the news that spinner and big-hitting lower-order batsman Ashley Nurse would miss the T20I series through injury. Spinners Khary Pierre and Obed McCoy are in line to make their T20I debuts.
Darren Bravo makes his return to the West Indies team for the first time since his infamous ‘big idiot’ tweet directed at WICB boss Dave Cameron. Bravo has been a consistent performer in T20 leagues around the world for the past two years, but has a lot to do to make up for the absence of blasters Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis.
Verdict: India 31/100
India’s spinners will give them the edge over the West Indies, who lack experience in that department.
