Deadline: August 6, 2019 at 8 PM IST
Venue: Providence Stadium, Guyana
Pitch report
India will now play the remaining matches of the tour in West Indies. The third and final T20I will be played at Providence Stadium, where the average first and second innings scores read 138 and 88 respectively. Although the numbers are discouraging for the batsmen, it is important to note that only six T20Is have been played at the venue. We will only know at the toss about its nature.
Match prediction
Given rain is forecasted for Tuesday, captains will look to bat first in order to steer clear of the DLS uncertainty. Here’s a fantasy tip: add as many batsman to your My11 from the team batting first.
Since winning the 2016 World T20I, West Indies’ journey in the format has been going downhill. They have won a mere 11 times in 35 T20Is. On the other hand, India have won 28 of their 44 T20Is in the same phase. Going by this data, the match prediction becomes easy.
Team news
West Indies promoted Sunil Narine to the opening slot at the expense of John Campbell. The idea was to let Narine go berserk and up the run rate. Nothing of that sort happened. He instead batted with a strike rate of 33.3, and in the process of making amends, he got his defence pierced by Washington Sundar’s off-spin. Whether West Indies will stick to the same ploy, is a question only time can tell.
Probable XI for West Indies: Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kieron Pollard, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Carlos Brathwaite (c), Keemo Paul, Khary Pierre, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas
There’s no reason why India won’t play the Chahar cousins, for they have already sealed the series. We might witness a lot of changes in the playing XI.
Probable XI for India: Rohit Sharma/KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Manish Pandey/Shreyas Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar/Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, K Khaleel Ahmed
NOTE: Pick your fantasy cricket team wisely.
Players to watch out for
Rohit Sharma has been unstoppable since the 2019 World Cup. The pitch in Florida wasn’t easy to bat on, but such is Rohit’s talent that he could score runs without breaking a sweat. He is one of the only two half-centurions thus far. The other is Rovman Powell who fearlessly took on India’s disciplined bowling attack.
Krunal Pandya has been the best spinner, taking wickets at crucial intervals as well as putting a lid on the runs. More importantly, he has been handy with the bat, blasting consecutive sixes in the last over on Sunday.
Key battles
Kohli vs Cottrell: The Indian captain has been dismissed twice by Sheldon Cottrell this series. Cottrell had Kohli deceived with a short-pitched delivery in the first ODI and then castled his defence in the second.
Rohit vs Narine: Rohit was aware of the number of times (8) Narine has dismissed him. In other formats, he would have taken his time and been more cautious. But on Sunday, Rohit decided to unleash his best on Narine. He hit a six over cow corner as soon as Narine dropped one short. He tried another heave but could fetch only a run. Rohit knew that attack is the best defence.
Lewis vs Bhuvi: Lewis has not opened his account yet this series, thanks to Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s smart bowling. On both occasions, Bhuvi outfoxed him with change in pace.
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