India vs Windies: Rishabh Pant is looking forward to his journey in Kolkata

The ongoing Windies tour of India has reached its last leg. After losing the two-Test series 0-2 and the five-match ODI series 1-3, the Caribbeans will now take on the hosts for a three-match T20I series starting Sunday. The first match of the series will be played at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, while the remaining two will be played in Lucknow on November 6 and Chennai on November 11.

Both teams will see a change in their leaderships for the T20I series. While Carlos Brathwaite will lead the Windies side, India will have Rohit Sharma at their helm as the regular skipper, Virat Kohli has been rested for the series. The Windies, the current world champions in T20, however, have a 5-2 advantage when it comes to head-to-head statistics in the 20-over format. They have played eight games in all so far out of which one match has remained inconclusive.

No MSD in India-Windies T20Is

The upcoming series is also unique in a way that it doesn’t feature Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s long-time wicket-keeper. The 37-year-old veteran has been overlooked for the series as the selectors feel that it is more practical to look beyond the man for he will no more feature in the next World Twenty20 that will be played in Australia in 2020. And it has also created a golden opportunity for the man who will don the gloves behind the wickets for India in the series.

Rishabh Pant, the 21-year-old wicket-keeper-batsman, who made his Test debut against England a few months ago and also played in the Test and ODI series against the Windies, will be India’s main wicketkeeper in the T20I series. Pant, who slammed a Test century at Kennington Oval, played three ODIs as a specialist batsman for Dhoni did the keeping job though he could not produce anything special.

On Saturday, Pant expressed his eagerness to feature in the T20I series by tweeting a photo of himself sitting in the team bus. Pant made his international debut in 2017 against England and has played four matches so far, the last being against Bangladesh in Colombo in March.

For the Windies, the first T20I will bring in a moment of nostalgia for it was here that they had won the World T20 title in 2016.

Here is Pant’s tweet

From ODI to T20… the journey continues in Kolkata! Looking forward to the first T20 match tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/xX9jP0TjSB

— Rishabh Pant (@RishabPant777) November 3, 2018

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