Series wrapped up, India look to assess bench strength

by Abbas Adil

CHENNAI – Having already secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in three-match Twenty20 International series against the Windies, India are set to rest a few key players and assess their bench strength in the final T20I on Sunday.

On Friday, it was announced that all of Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav had been rested for the game, with Siddharth Kaul, the medium pacer, being called up to the squad. With Washington Sundar, Khaleel Ahmed and Shahbaz Nadeem in the fray for the final clash, India could field an inexperienced bunch.

But the scrutiny is on India’s batting. Apart from Rohit Sharma, the stand-in skipper, no Indian batsman has crossed fifty so far in the series, and the likes of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant have failed to grab their opportunities in the absence of Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

MATCH STARTS AT 7:50 AM

Meanwhile, Sharma scored a 61-ball 111 in the second T20I to power India to victory, and is now just 69 runs away from overtaking Martin Guptill as the leading run-scorer in T20I history.

The Windies bowlers will be wary of him. That said, it is their batsmen who need to step up – The Windies have failed to go past 125 runs in the series so far. They will be hopeful of doing that this time around against an Indian side without Kuldeep Yadav.

Oshane Thomas and Carlos Brathwaite, the captain, have done well with the ball, and if the rest of the attack can hit their lines and lengths consistently, the Indian batsmen can be troubled. The visitors might also consider giving left-arm pacer Obed McCoy his T20I debut – the 21-year-old is known for his death-bowling variations in the shortest format of the game.

INDIA: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul.

WINDIES: Carlos Brathwaite(c), Fabian Allen, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Sherfane Rutherford, Oshane Thomas, Khary Pierre, Obed McCoy, Rovman Powell, Nicholas Pooran, Shai Hope.

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