T20 party animals West Indies dance into India’s dungeons

By Brandon Corlette

Wearing the label “the party animals”, the two-time defending T20 champions, West Indies are known for setting T20 matches on fire. But of recent, especially against India, they have thrown up at this party called T20 International cricket.
On Friday, December 6, the men in maroon will walk into the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, India to meet the hosts in the first of three T20Is from 09:30h local time. India have enjoyed an unbeaten run against West Indies in their last six matches home and away, and without a doubt, the y have proven to be the better team on both occasions.

Despite having a host of T20 stars in their line-up, West Indies’ win percentage in T20s since June 2016 is 30.77, which is only above Zimbabwe at second to last. The misery continues for West Indies, who won only one of their last five T20 bilateral series. That win came against Bangladesh, 2-1, in a home series.
Since those disastrous outings, the Caribbean team have some fresh recruits and some big names returning. Captain Kieron Pollard is the most notable return. In their most recent T20 series, against Afghanistan, they lost 2-1. The selectors have shown faith in the same bunch of guys to face an uphill task in the T20s against India.

West Indies would want to forget their last visit in India, especially their T20 series. They were whitewashed 3-0 at the hands of Rohit Sharma and company. In that three-match series, Darren Bravo’s 71 runs and Nicholas Pooran’s half-century were the mini-positives in the batting department. Pooran will be not eligible for selection until the second T20 when his ban expires.

For India, Sharma, who led the team in that series, scored a brilliant 111*, which was the highlight of the series with the bat. The Caribbean team failed to make amends in their T20 series in the USA and Guyana against India. It was a similar 3-0 result in August, but that series was a mini-resurgence for new Captain Pollard. The big Trinidadian, who enjoys a fruitful year with the bat in T20 matches in 2019, scored 115 runs, the most across both teams in that series.
In 2019, Pollard scored 1299 runs across all T20 matches played around the globe at a strike-rate of 146.94 and an average of 35 in 56 outings. West Indies’ success in T20s has been the opposite of Pollard. The men in maroon hold the worst balls per dismissal (14.4) and the worst balls per wicket (15.10) rate among teams in the world.

To cap off the ordinary performance by West Indies in T20s against India, they have struggled against wrist spin. In 109 overs of wrist spin, West Indies have lost 48 wickets. Cometh the wrist spin threat, cometh Kuldeep Yadav and his partner in crime, Yuzvendra Chahal. The latter needs three wickets to become the leading wicket-taker for Indians in T20Is.
West Indies will have to turn the tide and rekindle their fire in T20s, having last tasted a win against India in the shorter format in 2017. Undoubtedly, West Indies have some good players who can crash Team India’s party in the three-match T20 series, commencing from Friday.
West Indies T20 Squad: Kieron Pollard (Captain); Fabian Allen; Sheldon Cottrell; Shimron Hetmyer; Jason Holder; Keemo Paul; Brandon King; Evin Lewis; Khary Pierre; Nicholas Pooran; Denesh Ramdin; Sherfane Rutherford; Lendl Simmons; Kesrick Williams and Hayden Walsh Jr.
India T20 Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain); Rohit Sharma (Vice Captain); Shikhar Dhawan; KL Rahul; Shreyas Iyer; Manish Pandey; Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper); Shivam Dube; Washington Sundar; Ravindra Jadeja; Yuzvendra Chahal; Kuldeep Yadav; Deepak Chahar; Mohammed Shami; and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.