Kohli and co seeking extended dominance against Windies
By Brandon Corlette
The Virat Kohli-led India team are one of the most professional One Day International (ODI) outfits in World cricket. Led by Kohli, the World’s best batsman, India will play their first ODI in Guyana since 1977.
Shreyas Iyer on the eve of the match at his training session at Providence
After the final T20 match at the National Stadium at Providence on Tuesday last, Kohli explained that his team would continue to play consistent cricket.
“In the last three (or) four years, we have been able to achieve that, and we are currently the number two ODI team in the World, and there is a good reason for that”, Kohli disclosed.
Ahead of the three-match series against West Indies, Kohli and his team will open their account in today’s first ODI from 9:30 hours.
“The priority is to keep Indian cricket on top, and play consistent cricket and win games for the team”, Kohli highlighted.
Kuldeep Yadav during his fielding session yesterday
Shedding light on Shikhar Dhawan’s form, Kohli said Dhawan is an experienced campaigner, and will not be judged based on his performance in T20s.
Other top Indian cricketers Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuleep Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal will be expected to make an appearance in the ODIs, since they did not feature in the T20Is.
On the eve of the match, Iyer and spin trio Jadeja, Yadav and Chahal were seen at the National Stadium at Providence for their final practice session. With Providence being suited for spinners, these players will all be considered for play, given that Jadeja can handle himself with the bat.
India’s power-packed top order will be no surprise, the triple-threat of Rohit Sharma, Dhawan, and Kohli will be the pillar of the batting line-up.
Rishbah Pant has shown great promise, along with Manish Pandey, Jadhav and Iyer, who will all be contenders for the number four slot.
As is mostly the case with cricket games in Guyana, rain will have a say at some point in the game, but to what extent is the big question. Meteorologists have forecasted scattered thunderstorms during the early hours of the morning, which are expected to abate by noon.
Kohli is 19 runs shy of pipping Javed Miandad as the player with the most ODI runs against West Indies.
India’s probable squad: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 KL Rahul, 5 Manish Pandey/ Kedar Jadhav/Shreyas Iyer, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk) 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Khaleel Ahmed/Navdeep Saini/Kuldeep Yadav/Yuzvendra Chahal
