Twenty20 games can change shades in a blink. You cannot allow the moment to fly away.
This is a territory where impact players rule. They are game changers.
A whiff of magic — a monstrous hit off a perfectly good ball, a venomous delivery that bamboozles batsmen, an electrifying run-out or a gravity-defying catch — can alter scripts.
While its batting is often tested and found wanting — Virat Kohli being an exception — in Tests away from the subcontinent on surfaces offering seam movement, bounce or swing, India possesses some seriously good players for the shorter versions.
Many of them will be on view in the third Twenty20 international at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday.
Dangerous Rohit
None does more damage with the willow than the side’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma whose methods are smooth and graceful.
He picks the length quickly, gets into position and has loads of time to ease into his shots on both sides.
The manner Rohit sweeps the pacemen — he makes it appear ridiculously simple — is all about coordinating his stroke from the point of release. Anticipation and timing — the instant where the ball meets the ball — have to be perfect.
Rohit’s hundred in Lucknow was brutal in nature yet beautiful to watch. He used the pace on the ball clinically.
Shikhar Dhawan, the buccaneering southpaw, has been having a bit of a rough ride in recent times, but can shift gears and up his form.
Rahul needs to be consistent
And there is a bit of Rohit in the manner K.L. Rahul dissects attacks; he does so with considerable flair. Yet, the talented Rahul has to find consistency.
Two of the biggest Indian game-changers with the ball — Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav along with Umesh Yadav — have been rested for Sunday’s game keeping in mind the Australian tour. Paceman Siddarth Kaul comes in.
Yet, Yuzvendra Chahal, the deceptive leg-spinner who gets his deliveries to zip off the pitch — balls skidding through a little wide have resulted in several stumpings — will be at Rohit’s disposal.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, a massive factor at the beginning and the Death, will be around too.
Crucial bowler
And left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed not just lends variety to the attack, but gives it teeth by getting the ball to straighten or come into the right-hander at a lively pace, so crucial for a bowler of his kind.
In Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar, the side has multi-dimensional cricketers with loads of promise.
Krunal is tight with his left-arm spin and street-smart with the bat. And the calm Washington, a natural with his left-handed strokeplay, is someone who comprehends the angles well while delivering off-spin.
Local boys Washington and Dinesh Karthik had a knock at the ICF ground here on Friday.
Who can forget Karthik’s last ball tournament-winning six in the Nidahas Trophy final. This feisty player does not always get his due.
Still on wicketkeepers, Rishabh Pant can ruthlessly dismiss the ball into the stands.
In the West Indian camp, there is skipper Carlos Brathwaite whose four successive last-over sixes, bludgeoning England’s Ben Stokes, in that dramatic ICC World Twenty20 final at the Eden Gardens, is stuff of legend.
Can the skipper lift this West Indian team — it had a session at Chepauk on Friday — that is so down in morale?
