The Men-in-Blue led by Virat Kohli will begin their international campaign post the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 from Aug 03,2019 with a 3 match T20I series against the Westindies in Florida.
With MS Dhoni out of service to don in the national jersey for the Indian cricket team, it has opened the gates for the young Rishabh Pant to feature as the first choice for keeping behind the wickets. In the 15-member squad announced by the BCCI for the limited overs – Rahul Chahar & Navdeep Saini are the 2 individuals yet to make their respective debut for the national squad.
The 3 matches will be played within a short span of 4 days with the last T20 match scheduled on 06th Aug,2019. The focus being turned towards the Test championship which has marked its debut with the start of Ashes, it will be evident that both the teams look to start their preparations for the T20 World Cup 2020 and build a core squad for the ICC event next year.
Caribbean squad look to start afresh after their disappointing outing in the mega event in England where they managed to win just 2 games out of 9 with 1 match ending in N/R. Though WI remain a dominant force when the shortest format of the game is considered, the current T20 World Champions and the most successful team in the T20 WC with 2 titles to their name look to maintain their credentials in the format.
With Hardik Pandya being rested and Dhoni-less India, the Islandic nation will consider themselves as a strong contender to grab the 3 match series. The 4 day spreaded shorter format will be crucial to decide on the future fate of Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard who makes a comeback to the national side for the shortest format after a comparative amount of time.
Eyeing on the bowling department of both squads, the youngsters would be expected to boot in the expectations bar set by the senior bowlers previously. Virat, as always seen bringing the best out of his bowlers during the match would hope for a similar response from the new boys- Rahul Chahar & Navdeep Saini who are set to make their debut. With the regular and successful combo of wrist spinners- Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal being rested for the T20I series, it would be a challenging task for Chahar-Saini to find the desired turn in a batting friendly pitch of Florida.
Krunal Pandya & Khaleel Ahmed look to fine-tune their pace and develop themselves as a wicket-taker of international format under the guidance of the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The all-weather cricketer – Sir ‘Ravindra Jadeja’ will certainly play a major role in tuning his fellow spin-mates from boys to the men’s of the game if considered in the playing squad ahead of Krunal Pandya. Washington Sundar- though unlikely to feature for the day’s play would keep a close check on his IPL team’s skipper Virat’s strategy for the day and what the pitch offers for the spinners on the day.
The home-side will enter the series as the favourites and with return of Sunil Narine & big hitting trio of Hetmyer-Pollard-Russell, the local fans can expect a dominant performance by the team. Returning from the Gt20 Canada, Andre Russell will be highly expected to play a role of an anchor in the favourite format for the Islandic nation. With Sheldon Cottrell & Oshane Thomas most likely to be targeted by the Indian batsmen for majority of the runs, it will be exciting to witness how does Russell utilizes his fitness and Carlos Braithwaite justifies his role of an captian-all-rounder in the squad. The Guyanese fast-medium, Keemo Paul, who has been on a constant upgradation from representing WI in U-19 World Cup- representing Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2019 will be highly tested whether he could reflect his performance for the national squad as well.
INDIA IN T20I LAST 3 SERIES
Result Margin
IND IN AUS 2018 Drawn 1-1
INDIA IN NZ 2019 NZ 2-1
AUS IN IND 2019 AUS 2-0
Indian squad for the T20I series against WI:- Virat Kohli ©, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, K.L Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar,Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Siani.
WI squad for the first 2 T20I series against IND:- John Campbell, Evin Lewis, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Carlos Braithwaite ©, Keemo Paul, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, Anthony Bramble, Kharry Pierre, Jason Mohammed.
