India’s resilience, evident from its confident fightbacks in the T20I series against Bangladesh and the West Indies, will hold it in good stead in the third and final One-Day International against the Caribbeans at the Barabati Stadium here on Sunday.
With the series evenly poised at 1-1, the decider may turn Barabati into a pressure cooker.
Having ‘been there, done that’, the Indians know their job well.
High-stakes players
“Even the last match was a do-or-die (affair) for us with the series on the line. We will play with a similar mindset. When the stakes are high, I feel all the players pull up the socks, put up their hands,” said middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer, designated to speak for the team here on Saturday.
Nearly the whole squad — barring Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami and K.L. Rahul — turning up for an optional practice session on Saturday spoke of the hosts’ intent.
The dew factor comes into play here as early as 5 p.m., the Indians are ready for the challenge, though.
“I think it's going to be really fast in the second innings and the dew plays a massive role. We have played here before, against Sri Lanka, and in the evening there was dew in the outfield. The fielding coach literally made it wet and we took catches. So we are actually prepared. However bad the circumstances would be, we are ready for it,” said Shreyas.
Belligerence
Rohit and Rahul’s top-order belligerence and Shreyas and Rishabh Pant’s follow-up act have helped India.
It will assume importance again as the Virat Kohli-led side will look to out-bat the ‘Men in Maroon’.
Captain Kohli’s form in this series — he has scored 4 and 0 — and track record on this ground — a total of 34 runs in three ODIs and one T20I — may not be great, but the champion batsman, who spent considerable time in the nets on Saturday, has the ability to break the shackles any time.
Pacer Mohammed Shami and hat-trick man Kuldeep Yadav will be keen to continue their good work as India hopes to win its 10th straight bilateral series over Windies.
Navdeep Saini, who replaced Deepak Chahar, will hope to make his ODI debut.
So far, the West Indians have given a good account of themselves and will need to come up with a sound all-round performance to get a first series win over the Men in Blue since 2006.
The Visakhapatnam match slipped out of the visitors’ hands in the death overs as the Indians’ fiery strokeplay made possible a stiff target.
With dangerous batsmen like Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer and Kieron Pollard and effective bowlers like Sheldon Cottrell and Keemo Paul in its ranks, West Indies has the wherewithal to stop India at home, a feat not achieved since 2002-03.
The Caribbeans must improve their fielding, especially catching, to complement the other two departments of the game.
It will be interesting to see how the fresh-looking pitch, which is expected to produce another run glut, behaves as the ground is being used for the first time for a cricket match after being hit by Cyclone Fani in May.
Eye on floodlights
The floodlights, some of which have been changed after being damaged in the cyclone, will be under scrutiny as well. The organisers are, however, confident the nearly 38,000 fans, for an international match here after two years, will not be disappointed.
The teams (from):
India: Virat Kohli (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini.
West Indies: Kieron Pollard (Capt.), Sunil Ambris, Shai Hope (wk), Khary Pierre, Roston Chase, Alzarri Joseph, Sheldon Cottrell, Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Evin Lewis, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Keemo Paul and Hayden Walsh Jr.
Umpires: Shaun George and Nitin Menon; TV Umpire: Rod Tucker; Fourth umpire: Anil Choudhary; Match Referee: David Boon.
Match starts at 1.30 p.m.
