Chennai: Having already sealed the three-match T20 series 2-0, India will be aiming to complete clean sweep when they take on a battered West Indies in the third and final encounter here Sunday looking to test their bench strength. The men in blue won the first match by five wickets before restricting the visitors 71 runs short in the second.
For the cricket loving fans in Chennai, they will certainly miss their ‘favourite son’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is not a part of the T20 squad, the selectors have also rested pacemen Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav for Sunday’s game, to allow them to be in the best physical condition ahead of the tour to Australia next month.
Meanwhile, it will be an ideal opportunity for the reserve bench players like Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar and the uncapped Shahbaz Nadeem before the selectors finalise the squad for the tour of Australia. Medium-pacer Siddarth Kaul has been added to the squad for the game.
The pitch at Chepauk has been on the slower side in recent games but the square prepared for Sunday’s game is expected to favour the batsmen.
Skipper Rohit Sharma has been in tremendous form in the series – his blistering century in the second game sealed the series for India – but the other batsmen haven’t made sizeable contributions despite facing an inconsistent West Indies attack.
While other opener Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant would like to have few more runs under their belt before their tour Down Under, the pressure will also be on local star Dinesh Karthik, whose heroics in the Nidahas Trophy finale in Sri Lanka are still fresh in memory.
With no Bumrah and Kuldeep in the bowling lineup another senior pro Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the young Khaleel Ahmed are expected to form the pace attack and provide early wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal is likely to come in place of Kuldeep while Krunal Pandya will expect to build on an impressive start to his international career.
On the other hand, the visitors after their brief exploits in the ODIs have failed completely in the T20s and would like to end their campaign with a consolation win.
The absence of regular openers (Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis) and the decision to tinker with the combination at the top hasn’t helped their cause either.
Established names like Kieron Pollard, Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin haven’t fired and the impressive Shimron Hetmyer pushed up the order hasn’t found the going easy to add to the Windies’ woes.
Among the bowlers, Oshane Thomas has impressed the most with his pace and ability to take wickets but has lacked support from the others.
Skipper Carlos Brathwaite will be eager to showcase his abilities and thereby inspire his men, low on morale, to raise their game against a dominant Indian side in the concluding match of the tour to secure a consolation win.
