Team India eyes whitewash as West Indies seek to save skin

As India wrapped up the ODI series early, securing an unassailable lead over the Men from the Caribbean, all eyes would turn to the final contest of the fray, that has already been rendered a dead rubber, courtesy of a terrier-like Indian squad who were determined to put in those extra yards and flip the tide of the second ODI from the sheer jaws of defeat.

Axar Patel’s match-winning enterprise would help India cross the finish line after Sanju Samson’s maiden half-century laced with Shreyas Iyer’s resolute knock in the middle stabilized the Indian ship after an early wobble.

The final ODI on Wednesday would bring down the curtains on the series and India would be hopeful of clinching a whitewash with no game being a dead rubber keeping in mind the 2023 world cup. This contest can be a potential litmus test for the youngsters who would most likely be given a chance to prove themselves while the hosts would be desperate to save the blushes of a clean sweep.

It has been a miraculous turnaround of affairs with the bat by the Men from the Caribbean with the trifecta of Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers and Nicholas Pooran leading the way after a fiasco against Bangladesh in the preceding series. However, the valiant efforts by their batters have been overshadowed by their Indian counterparts.

With two games that produced 600-plus runs, the final is being touted to be another explosive run-fest that will be starring two high-scoring teams with a string of fine batters, who have been in exemplary form throughout the first two games so far. Shreyas Iyer has been impressive in both the contests while Dhawan got out to a loose stroke in the second match, underlining a couple of frowns on the Indian faces.

Gill has got off to decent starts but at the end of it all, they haven’t bore much fruits. These are a few areas of concern that India will have to address as they eye a whitewash of the hosts in the latter’s backyard, another remarkable feat achieved without a flurry of their first team players. The Indian bowling in the powerplay is another area of focus that Rahul Dravid would love to do a little bit of work with, especially with the dearth of scalps that has bothered the Indian charge.

Match details:

West Indies vs India (3rd ODI, ODI series)

Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain

27th July 2022

7:00 PM IST

Head-to-head:

Total matches: 138

India: 69

West Indies: 63

Stats:

Shikhar Dhawan is 36 runs away from gathering 1000 ODI runs against West Indies, a rare feat in the antiquity of the prolonged rivalry.

Shikhar Dhawan is just two catches away from entering the elite clique that stars the likes of Vivian Richards, Carl Hooper and Virat Kohli to have bagged 20 catches in the ODI rancour between India and West Indies.

India’s win against West Indies by 224 runs back in 2018 at Brabourne is the only 200-plus win margin in the Indo-Caribbean rivalry in ODIs.

Squads:

West Indies:

Nicholas Pooran (C), Shamarh Brooks, Brandon King, Rovman Powell, Keacy Carty, Kyle Mayers, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales.

India:

Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.