India vs West Indies: 3 India players to watch out for in the T20I series
India brushed aside West Indies 3-0 in the ODI series and will look to continue this momentum when the teams lock horns in the T20I series. The two-time World T20 Champions have always been a dangerous side and cannot be taken lightly.
India did not have an entirely good T20 World Cup and under Rohit Sharma, they will look to turn a new leaf. They have included a number of young players in the squad and it will be interesting to see how they perform in this series.
All three matches will be played at the Eden Gardens, a ground that has been kind to West Indies which will make this series an interesting affair.
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Here we take a look at 3 India players to watch out for in this series:
1.) Ruturaj Gaikwad
India vice-captain KL Rahul has been ruled out of the T20I series against West Indies and young batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has been named as his replacement. This will be a key series for Gaikwad as he has been mighty impressive in the IPL and also in the Vijay Hazare trophy.
Gaikwad has already received his cap in this format - he featured in two T20Is on the tour of Sri Lanka last July. He ended the past IPL season with a chart-topping 635 T20 runs at an average of 45.35 and strike rate of 136.26.
With Gaikwad in the squad, the hosts have three opening options to partner captain Rohit Sharma. Ishan Kisha and Venkatesh Iyer are the other batters who could possibly walk out to open the innings.
2.) Harshal Patel
Harshal Patel has been the talk of the town ever since he picked up 32 wickets last IPL season. This saw a bidding war between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad, and from a base price of ₹2 crore, he was snapped up by RCB for ₹10.75 crore.
He will now need to forget all this and divert his focus to the T20I series. Harshal has played a couple of T20Is and has picked up four wickets. He has looked impressive and is a good option to have in the middle and death overs.
However, with the hefty price tag, there will be a lot of focus on him and how he responds could define his future in international cricket.
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3.) Ravi Bishnoi
It will be interesting to see if Rohit Sharma tries out Ravi Bishnoi in this series. West Indies struggled against the spinners in the ODI series and hence, Bishnoi could well get a nod to start this series.
He was selected by Lucknow ahead of the IPL auction and he certainly has the potential to have a good international career. In 42 T20 matches, Bishnoi has picked up 49 wickets at an average of 21.65 and an economy rate of 6.63.
With a mean googly and unnerving accuracy, Bishnoi could be quite a handful against the power-hitters of West Indies if he is given the series to showcase his skills.