India vs West Indies 3rd T20: To avoid losing the third consecutive defeat and series against West Indies, Indian batsmen will have to perform fearlessly in the third T20 match on Tuesday. The slow pitches here have not been batting friendly but as captain Hardik Pandya said on Sunday, India will have to find ways to score 10-20 extra runs.
India was last defeated in a bilateral T20 series by the West Indies in 2016. India is trailing 0-2 after losing the first two matches of the five-match series here. In this format, batsmen have to play aggressively from the first ball itself, but till now India’s top-order batsmen Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav have not been able to do so. This has put pressure on middle order batsmen like Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma. Verma, however, made a brilliant debut and played excellent innings in the last two matches.
With the focus being on the ODI World Cup this year, Gill, Ishaan and Suryakumar will have to score runs ahead of the Asia Cup starting on August 31. After the two-wicket defeat on Sunday, Hardik said that the batsmen will have to play more responsibly.
India’s batting order is only till number six and all-rounder Akshar Patel is landing at number seven. In-form spinner Kuldeep Yadav missed Sunday due to a swollen thumb and it remains to be seen whether he is fit tomorrow.
Among the bowlers, especially the spinners will have to curb the bat of Nicholas Pooran. Puran faced Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi with ease. Akshar was not given a chance to bowl in the last match.
Hardik and Arshdeep got swing in the second match and both of them will start the bowling. Chahal, playing after two months, was effective, but Bishnoi could not do anything amazing. Fast bowler Mukesh Kumar gave a lot of runs, in whose place Avesh Khan or Umran Malik can be fielded.
On the other hand West Indies is one match away from winning the series. Pooran has made up for the failure of his top-order batsmen. Pooran and Shimran Hetmyer would once again like to put pressure on the Indian spinners. West Indies captain Rovman Powell said that we have not defeated India in the T20 series since 2016 and will fill this gap this time.
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