India vs West Indies 1st T20I; Team India is all set for the second phase of the West Indies tour as the two teams will face each other in the five-match T20 series. The first T20 will be held at The Brian Lara Cricket Stadium, Trinidad on Friday, 29th July. After that, the teams will move to Warner Park in St Kitts for the next two games. The final 2 matches will be played in the U.S. at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Florida.
The hosts were failed in the 3 One Day Internationals and now hoping for a comeback in the T20 format.
India, on the other hand, was excellent in the 50-over format with West Indies winning all three matches. They will now look forward to maintaining the same level of consistency in the shortest format. Team India was actually checking their bench strength with the Shikhar Dhawan-led young ODI squad when the star players were all rested after the India vs England ODI and T20 series.
Now, the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is back in action to lead the Men in Blue. Rohit will surely look forward to using the opportunity to come back stronger in the T20I format as the team is preparing for the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.
K. L. Rahul is also back in the line-up after his groin surgery. He was being side-lined after the IPL due to his injury. But according to BCCI, he will take another week off to relax and recover. As Rahul’s availability is in doubt, Sanju Samson has been named to the T20 squad. Samson was there in the just-finished ODI line-up but was not included in the T20 squad. But BCCI has not yet made an official statement regarding the selection.
Samson would be hoping to be given another opportunity after his notable performance in the ODI series. His 98 runs partnership with Shreyas Iyer in the crucial moment helped team India win the 2nd ODI match.
The absence of key players like Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah will be a great opportunity for the bench players to prove their expertise in the game.
Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Aswin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Kuldeep Yadav will join the Indian camp for the series.
On the other hand, West Indies will also be likely to shuffle their squad for the shortest format. They will surely bring their big-hitters to the forefront because this will be a perfect opportunity for them to test their bench strength against one of the strongest teams in the world of cricket.
The ODI series was a tough one for both teams as team India managed to win the 1st ODI by 3 runs. Both the teams crossed the 300 runs milestone in the game. West Indies put up a dominating performance in the second game, but Axar Patel’s master-class batting refused them to win the match. The third ODI was affected by rain and the match was shortened to 36 overs. But West Indies couldn’t reach the 257 runs target as they were bowled out in 35 overs.
West Indies lost both the ODI and T20 in India earlier this year and this is the 3rd time that West Indies lose a series to India by a 3-0 margin. But West Indies consider the T20 format as their strongest format and they will look forward to seal the series with consecutive wins. They earlier beat Bangladesh in the 3-match T20 series 2-0.
The weather is predicted to be partly cloudy with the chance of light fall. The spinners and pace bowlers can excel on the pitch with slow deliveries. The 1st match will be very crucial for both teams to make a statement in the series.
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