Deadline: November 15, 2019 at 1:30 PM IST
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Pitch Report
This is the same venue where India and West Indies locked horns in the 2011 World Cup. Riding on Yuvraj Singh’s spectacular hundred, India beat West Indies by 80 runs. In fact, batting becomes an uphill task in the second innings at Chennai: a target has been chased in only 7 of 20 completed matches.
Probable XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Shivam Dube, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal
West Indies: Sunil Ambris/Brandon King, Shai Hope (wk), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Kieron Pollard (c), Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Hayden Walsh, Alzarri Joseph
Match Prediction & Preview
West Indies have not won an ODI bilateral series against India since 2006. To make matters worse, they have won only 3 bilateral series since 2013 – each against Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ireland.
The win against Afghanistan came last month, under the new leadership of Kieron Pollard. We witnessed how West Indies fought tooth and nail in the T20I series, that Rohit Sharma praised Pollard’s captaincy. Whether West Indies find their lost mojo in the 50-over format, is a question only time can tell.
India meanwhile have nothing to worry about. Although Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya are injured, India’s bench strength still keeps them ahead in the race against the West Indies.
Players To Watch Out For
Rohit Sharma likes feasting on the West Indian bowlers. He has smashed as many as 1,265 runs at 57.5, with highest scores of 152* and 162.
Virat Kohli, as has been the case for a few years now, is the highest run-scorer in ODIs in 2019. His 1,288 runs have come at a stunning average of 64.4 including 5 hundreds and 6 fifties.
Shai Hope isn’t too far down the list: he has collected 1,123 runs including 3 hundreds and 7 fifties this year.
Roston Chase was awarded Player of the Series against Afghanistan for his all-rounder performance. He scored 229 runs and picked up 6 wickets. Not to forget that he has 2 Tests hundreds against India.
Kuldeep Yadav has been feeding on West Indies’ weakness of playing against wrist-spin. He has scalped 21 wickets in 12 matches against them.
Hayden Walsh was impressive in T20Is with his leg-spin. Now that he will get longer spells, it will be interesting to see if his wickets column scales up.
Mohammad Shami is more effective in ODIs than he is in Tests. In 70 matches he has sniped up 131 wickets at 24.7 comprising of 8 four-wicket hauls. Watch out for his reverse-swing in death overs.
Shimron Hetmyer had a good time when West Indies visited India last year. He scored the bulk of the runs (259) for West Indies, smashing a century and a fifty.