Cricket will seek to reach out to the untapped American market when the sport’s most followed practitioner, India, locks horns with the West Indies here on Saturday.
The two Twenty20 Internationals over the weekend will be the first instance of India being involved in a competitive match in the USA.
Days after India cruised to victory in the four-match Test series for its second successive triumph on Caribbean soil, the team’s seasoned campaigner, M.S. Dhoni, returns to lead the side in the two limited-overs games at the Central Broward Regional Park. The only ICC-certified ODI-standard stadium facility in the USA, the Park hosted six Caribbean Premier League matches last month.
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The 14-member Indian squad has as many as 11 regulars returning after being rested from the tour of Zimbabwe earlier this year.
Dhoni, who has retired from the longest format of the game, is scheduled to play just seven more matches in 2016 — the two T20Is against the West Indies here and five ODIs against New Zealand in India.
Dhoni’s last assignment was against Zimbabwe where he led a young Indian team, sans the stars, to victory in both the ODIs and T20Is in Harare in June.
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The two-match series is set to be the first of what will develop into an annual event in the USA as part of efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences.
Optimistic Indian coach Anil Kumble was optimistic about a good performance in what will be his first assignment with Dhoni.
“This is the first time that I’ll be working with MS, obviously we have played together over a long period of time and we have had a few chats,” Kumble said.
“I’m really looking forward to working with him and the new set of boys like (Jasprit) Bumrah who’s joined as well. I’ve worked with him in the IPL so it’s nice to be a part of the India dressing room again,” he added.
As far as the West Indies team is concerned, the focus will be on Carlos Brathwaite, who was elevated to captaincy in place of Darren Sammy.
It may be the reigning world champion in the format, having triumphed in India earlier this year, but that didn’t save Sammy’s job as skipper.
Brathwaite, on the other hand, etched his name into West Indies cricket folklore by smashing four sixes in the final over against England to win this year’s World T20 final for his team in Kolkata.
“I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be,” said Brathwaite.
“I don’t think it’s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos.”
But despite his heroics at Eden Gardens, the 28-year-old Brathwaite is yet to become a force to reckon with when it comes to international experience, having played just three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight Twenty 20s.
India has no issues on the confidence front heading into the weekend. It has enjoyed a solid run in the T20 series in recent times, winning in Australia, against Sri Lanka and claiming the Asia Cup before recovering to beat Zimbabwe 2-1.
Twelve of the 14-man Test squad will be in Florida, with Test skipper Virat Kohli handing over the leadership duties to Dhoni.
They will have revenge on their minds having lost to the West Indies in the semifinals of this year’s World Twenty20.
The teams (from) :
India : M.S. Dhoni (capt.), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, K.L. Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav, and Virat Kohli.
West Indies : Carlos Brathwaite (capt.), Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree, and Sunil Narine.