IND vs WI 3rd ODI PREVIEW

India eyes series whitewash!

All attention will be on Friday as Team India will be looking for a series sweep against the men in maroon in Ahmedabad. For all their domination against West Indies since 2006, India haven't whitewashed them in a bilateral series. 
       The Lanky pacer from Karnataka Praisdh Krishna rampaged through the opposition in the last game as he returned with impressive figures of 9-3-12-4. He was well supported by the new-ball duo of Thakur and Siraj as they restricted West Indies for 193 and won the game by 44 runs. Prasidh Krishna now has 15 wickets from 6 ODIs, a record for India . 
        West Indies were much better than they were in the first ODI. The pace quartet of Roach, Holder, Joseph and Odean Smith did not allow the hosts to get away with a good start and kept the Indian top order tied with good line and lengths in the first 15 overs. This was the first time since Kanpur 2013 that the visitors had managed to dismiss both Rohit and Kohli under the score of 20.
Focus was on KL Rahul's batting position, but the management made the wise call of batting him in middle order. A position where he is averaging 67 in 11 innings and striking at an impressive rate of 109. With Rohit confirming Dhawan's availablity, India's middle order will be boosted with Pant at 4 and Rahul at 5. 
            Similar problems persisted with West Indies which they had pointed out after the 1st ODI. The side is struggling to bat for 50 overs. Only Shai Hope and Ewin Levis are averaging in excess of 40 since 2019 WC. Everyone else from Hetmyer, Chase, Bravo to Pollard who have batted in this period average in mid 20s. Brooks has been a ray of light. He has scored 40+ thrice in his 5 outings for WI including a 94 on debut. One of the positives for them would be Odean Smith. He picked the big fish Virat Kohli and also impressed with few big hits down the order. It will be interesting to see if he keeps his place if Pollard returns for the 3rd ODI or they decide to move away from Darren Bravo. They need a win at any cost as their position in Super League is not looking good and they are set to play the ICC qualifiers for 2023 WC.
            The game is important for Virat Kohli as he will be eyeing to make a comeback with a bang after a rare back-to-back failure in this format.  With series in the bag, the management has a chance to try out Ravi Bishnoi.

Probable XI

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzi Chahal, Mohammed Siraj

West Indies: Shai Hope, Brandon King, Sharmrah Brooks, Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard/Darren Bravo, Fabien Allen, Jason Holder, Kemar Roach, Akeil Hosein, Odean Smith, Alzaari Joseph

Pitch Report

Ahmedabad pitch is expected to assist spinners a little more than the seamers here and both teams might field an extra spin option here. Even though the teams defending here have a slightly better win-rate, the dew factor might force the Toss winner to chase on this ground.
 

Head to Head
Overall: India leads 66-63
In India: India leads 31-28
Last 10 games: India leads 8-1

Match Ups

India
Kohli vs Holder: 224 runs for 4 dismissals
Kohli vs Roach: 284 runs for 2 dismissal
Kohli vs Alzarri: 78 runs for 2 dismissals
Rohit vs Roach: 225 runs for 4 dismissals
Rohit vs Alzarri: 43 runs for 2 dismissals
Rahul vs Alzarri: 41 runs for 2 dismissals
Dhawan vs Alzarri: 54 runs for 2 dismissals
Dhawan vs Roach: 88 runs for 3 dismissals

West Indies
Hope vs Chahal: 60 runs for 1 dismissal
Bravo vs Prasidh: 9 runs for 1 dismissal
Holder vs Chahal: 46 runs for 2 dismissals

 

Key Players

India
Virat Kohli: This is 5th consecutive innings at home he hasn't scored a 100. Last time this happened was in 2017 against Australia.

Prasidh Krishna: He has felt himself at home in Ahmedabad more than others averaging 6.83 with 6 wickets in the series so far. He will look to continue in his rhythm.

Rohit and Dhawan: This prolific duo will be opening the innings after almost an year.
India could look to bat first as they will try and test their line up in view of the 50 over world cup next year.

West Indies
Shai Hope: His record in Asia speaks for itself with 6 hundreds and 5 fifties. His failure is directly proportional to his side's result since he his the glue of this batting line up.

Sharmrah Brooks: Three 40+ scores in his short career of 5 ODIs. With Pooran struggling to put bat on to the ball, he is their key batter in middle order.

Alzaari Joseph: He has picked 4 wickets at economy of 4.74 so far and has a more than decent record against Kohli-Rohit-Rahul. Easily their best bowler along with Jason Holder.

Fanstasy XI