West Indies v India, 3rd ODI: India’s Predicted XI

After two ODIs in Trinidad, the action shifts to Antigua where both teams will again play two games. The first match of the series was washed out and India rolled out a clinical performance in the next one to win the game by 105 runs. If India manages to win this game at the Sir Vivian Richard Stadium, they will ensure that they will not lose the series.

India’s top order once again delivered the goods in either game. Rahane and Dhawan added century run partnerships in both games to get India off to a perfect start. Rahane was in exemplary form in the second game and recorded his third career hundred off 102 balls. He paced his innings beautifully and showed intent the moment he walked out to bat. Kohli has been ever reliable at No. 3 scoring a 66-ball 87 in the last game. Once again the good form of the top 3 hasn’t allowed the middle order to get a run out in the middle. Dhoni has faced just 22 balls on this tour whereas Jadhav has faced six. It will be interesting to see if India shuffles the batting order to allow a few batsmen to get more time in the middle.

West Indies have been poor with the bat and ball in the last game. Their bowling was particularly poor at the death as they leaked 56 runs in the last 5 overs. Chasing a colossal target, they never showed any intention of trying to chase it down. It was a case of accepting defeat without even fighting the battle. The selectors have left out Kieran Powell and Jonathan Carter for the remainder of the series to try out some new uncapped faces. It will be interesting to see how the newcomers fare against the mighty Indians.

Let’s have a look at the Predicted XI of India for the Antigua ODI:

Openers (Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant)

Rahane was severe on anything short as he dispatched those balls on either side of the wicket for boundaries. Rahane has been on the fringes in the ODI set-up for a while and has grabbed his chances with both hands as soon as he got an opportunity. He needs to keep posting big scores for the remainder of the series in order to put pressure on the selectors and Rohit Sharma.

Dhawan might be replaced with Pant, as the opener deserves a rest after playing continuously since the first week of April. It is vital to give rest to your top players in order to make sure they are fresh for the strenuous season ahead. This will also provide an opportunity to hand Rishabh Pant with an ODI debut. The explosive batsman has done enough in domestic cricket to warrant a place in ODI cricket. Opening the innings suit his style of play a lot and Pant must bat freely without any pressure.

Middle Order (Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav)

Kohli has been the incumbent No. 3 for almost half a decade now. He knows exactly how to pace an innings and reassess as and when required. He has recently added power shots in his game which has enabled him to hit the big sixes, a feature which was missing from his game earlier. His 66-ball 87 was a prime example of his much improved attacking game.

Yuvraj Singh has 18 runs in two innings. He will be gutted to miss out on the chance of piling on the misery on a lacklustre bowling attack of the West Indies. There has been a question mark over his fitness and form in the recent while as he has registered three successive failures in ODIs. The 35-year old still has three games to make it count and shut down his detractors.

Dhoni hasn’t got much of a hit in the recent while. He remained unbeaten in both games after making run a ball 9 and 13. Like Yuvraj, Dhoni too is nearing towards the end of an illustrious career. He has expressed his desire to take part in the World Cup in 2019 and for that, he needs to continue scoring runs and a weak West Indies attack needs no second invitation for a man of Dhoni’s class and quality.

Jadhav too has faced very little balls in the last 7 matches. Only one out of these matches, Jadhav got a chance to build an innings. The Maharashtra batsman is too good a player to be wasted at No. 6 or 7. India needs to try him at No. 4 to ascertain his ability batting higher in the order.

All-rounders (Hardik Pandya and Ravi Ashwin)

Young Hardik Pandya has had a great start to his career. He bowled a tight spell in the last game but failed with the bat when he was promoted to bat at No. 4 for the first time in his short career. Pandya must make full use of the opportunities he is presented with as he can further groom himself into a genuine all-rounder.

Ashwin bowled well but, again, as he always does, tried too many variations early in his spell. The 30-year old’s ODI form hasn’t been the best in the last 18 months which Ashwin is wary of. He needs to perform in this series as the competition for spinners has been increased by Kuldeep Yadav.

Bowlers (Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami)

Kuldeep bowled a good spell in his debut spell for India. The used his googly to good effect, getting two batsmen out stumped. Yadav is tough to pick from the wrists and most batsmen play him off the surface. But full deliveries don’t give batsmen too much of time to adjust to the turn off the surface. Kuldeep will learn a lot from the remaining three games, provided he gets a chance in each game.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been in terrific white-ball form in the last 15 months. He yet again was threatening with the new ball picking 2 wickets in his first two overs. Bhuvi’s ability to pick wickets with the new ball is worth its weight in gold. He later comes back and bowls pinpoint yorkers during the death to cease the run-scoring of the batters.

Shami might get his chance instead of Umesh Yadav. Shami has warmed the bench for 7 straight games and deserves a chance to resume his ODI career which stalled post the 2015 World Cup when he picked up an injury. A wicket taking bowler, Shami’s pace can disturb batsmen on the low and slow tracks of West Indies.