Big picture
With lightning scares, and the possibility of any series result other than India’s win out of the way, the teams move to Guyana, in the northern mainland of South America for the third and final T20I. Neither team looked keen on making changes during the second match on Sunday, but that will likely change.
While a look to next year’s World Cup – 14 months away – is not plausible, West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite did hint towards long-term planning during the toss, and as such may be looking to bring even more young talent into the fray before they move to the next series. There is also a five-match losing streak to snap.
For India, there is the chance to reward some of IPL’s most consistent players in what is essentially a dead rubber. In a system brimming with competition for places, they will not find a more convenient time.
Form guide
West Indies LLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
India WWLLL
In the spotlight
Shimron Hetmyer batted at No. 5 for a duck in the first game, and came in at No. 6 before the players went off in the second. At home in Guyana, West Indies could look to push him higher up the order and have the kind of impact he had in the limited-overs leg of the India tour last year. They’ve had two different No. 4s in the first two games, so it is not out of the question.
India will be impressed by Krunal Pandya‘s integration into the senior team. The last four series he’s played in have all been in different countries and he’s produced notable performances in each of those. However, even within that small sample size, he’s shown the tendency to follow up good performances with middling ones. With the form he showed with both bat and ball on Sunday, he has the opportunity to close out the series on a high.
Team news
West Indies will be fairly happy with their bowling performances over the two matches, and the batting improved vastly from the sub-100 effort in the first match. They’ll be tempted to name a few changes in the top order to build on that.
West Indies XI (probable): 1 John Campbell/Evin Lewis, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Nicholas Pooran/Anthony Bramble (wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Carlos Brathwaite (capt), 8 Keemo Paul, 9 Khary Pierre, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Oshane Thomas
India could bring all four of their benched players in and still put out a competitive squad. They are yet to play Rahul Chahar, the only wristspinner in the squad, and Shreyas Iyer, who has long been knocking on the doors.
India XI (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Manish Pandey/Shreyas Iyer, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja/Washington Sundar, 8 Deepak Chahar/Navdeep Saini, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Rahul Chahar
Pitch and conditions
Thunderstorms are forecast in Georgetown, Guyana just before start of play. So not much changes in terms of potential sluggishness in the pitch – they got it in Florida, and they could get it again on Tuesday.
Stats and trivia
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Having won five of their first seven completed T20I matches against India, West Indies have failed to win in the last five – dating back to July 2017
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Rishabh Pant hasn’t made a limited-overs fifty for India across formats in his last six innings