Visakhapatnam: After suffering a crushing defeat in Chennai, Team India will look to come out with a better performance on all fronts and level the three-match ODI series when they take on the West Indies in the second game at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
India — ranked second in ODIs — will be desperate to avoid a series defeat against a side which is seven spots lower to them. The record of the Men in Blue has been outstanding at home in the last few years and it would be a bit of an embarrassment if they go down against a young Caribbean side.
India lost the first ODI where they found themselves wanting on all fronts. After posting a challenging 288-run target on a sluggish MA Chidambaram wicket, the hosts came out with a below par performance in both the bowling and fielding departments and were defeated by eight wickets to concede a 1-0 lead in the series.
One of the things which was evident in Chennai was that India’s team balance wasn’t right as they were struggling to get the overs out of their fifth bowler. They handed a debut to Shivam Dube and he was taken to cleaners by both Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope. Thus, going into the Visakhapatnam game, the team management will have to address this one key area.
Another area of concern for Virat Kohli is team’s fielding which has not been great in the recent times. Shreyas Iyer spilled an easy catch of Hetmyer who scored 139 runs and broke the backbone of the Indian bowling line-up. Thus, the Men in Blue will have to pull up their socks in the fielding department too.
The only positive for the hosts was the batting performance of Rishabh Pant, who has been under the pump in recent times. In Chennai, he scored his maiden ODI fifty and thus the team would want him to carry on with the form in the remaining matches as well.
On the other hand, Windies will go into the match with a lot of confidence. Their performance in Chennai in all the three aspects of the game was better than the hosts and all they need to do is to continue with that in order to win their first ODI series against India since 2006.
Their batting will again revolve around Hope and Hetmyer and the visitors will hope their two premier batters once again take the Indian bowlers to the task.
Squads: India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur
West Indies: Sunil Ambris, Shai Hope, Khary Pierre, Roston Chase, Alzarri Joseph, Kieron Pollard (C), Sheldon Cottrell, Brandon King, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Hayden Walsh Jr.
