Cricket: India to face West Indies crucial fourth T20I at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Florida

After a month of island hopping in the Caribbean, where the results have been somewhat mixed, India jet off to mainland USA hoping to stave off a rare series defeat to the West Indies. The visitors’ engine has often sputtered in the white-ball leg, partly down to their big-picture focus and the resulting experimentation. They have, however, shown their true hand when they’ve been pushed to a corner, like in the deciding one-dayer in Trinidad or in the must-win third T20I in Guyana three days ago.

In Florida, which is expected to host games at next year’s T20 World Cup, India have a task to familiarise themselves with the high-scoring conditions and see if the chosen bunch of youngsters possess the wherewithal to do so when they aren’t exactly frontrunners. After firing blanks in the first two games, India’s T20 batting linchpin, Suryakumar Yadav, stamped his presence on the series.

Tilak Varma, on the other hand, has belied his experience to emerge as a player with a very high ceiling. So much so that three games in, there are murmurs of him being a left-field choice to make the ODI World Cup squad.

For West Indies, the motivation is simple. They are on the brink of a series win, a chance to win their first rubber of two or more matches against India, in any format, since 2016. Doing so will also give the two-time winners of the T20 World Cup their first back-to-back series wins in the format since 2017. That, if not anything, should alleviate some of the crushing recent disappointments and set them rolling once more on the path to next year’s World Cup in these very locales.

Teams:

West Indies Squad: Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Johnson Charles, Nicholas Pooran(w), Rovman Powell(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Romario Shepherd, Roston Chase, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy, Oshane Thomas, Odean Smith, Shai Hope, Jason Holder

India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Sanju Samson(w), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Umran Malik, Ishan Kishan, Avesh Khan