India and Windies are all geared up to cross swords in the three-match T20 International series which gets underway on Saturday, July 3. The opening encounter will take place at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill, Florida. In their last meeting in the format, the Men in Blue slapped the Caribbean team with a whitewash in the three-match affair in India.

The visitors will be going in with a relatively inexperienced bowling attack, though their batting is full-strength. As far as the Islanders are concerned, they included the likes of Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, both of whom didn’t play the 2019 World Cup. Back in March, the Windies slumped to another clean-sweep, that time at the hands of England. They’ll be keen to make amends.

Pitch and Conditions

The pitch is Florida has favoured the team, batting first. The same can be comprehended from the fact that the chasing sides lost six out of the seven games with their only victory coming in 2010. Even in the last five T20s, the chasing team has won only once. The average run-rate in T20Is at this venue is 8.05. In 2016, India and Windies were involved in a game, which produced almost 500 runs.

Team Combinations

Windies

Pollard and Narine are expected to walk into the eleven straight away keeping in mind their exploits in the shorter format. It will also be interesting to see where Narine bats as he mostly opens the batting in franchise cricket and scores briskly. John Campbell may get a chance. The focus will be on Evin Lewis, who already has a couple of T20I tone versus India, one of which came in Florida itself.

Shimron Hetmyer is full of talent but has been a disappointment in T20Is, having an average of 12.11. The southpaw will be looking to get back amongst the runs. Oshane Thomas ruffled the India batters when he made his T20I debut. Cottrell has been a prolific wicket-taker. Most importantly, skipper Brathwaite needs to stand tall. Andre Russell has been ruled out of the series.

Predicted XI

Evin Lewis, John Campbell, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Carlos Brathwaite (c), Sunil Narine, Khary Pierre, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas

India

Shikhar Dhawan made a comeback after recovering from a thumb injury. He is expected to be back, opening the batting alongside Rohit Sharma. It means that KL Rahul will most likely be batting at number three. Captain Virat Kohli has come a number of times at four and it won’t be a surprise if he bats there. Both Rohit and Rahul have T20I centuries versus the Windies and their role will be key.

Shreyas Iyer has been good in the IPL and well as for India A, and can get a chance. There have been a lot of talks surrounding Pant, who needs to improve on his T20I average of 19.41. Krunal Pandya is the probable all-rounder ahead of Ravindra Jadeja. Navdeep Saini and Rahul Chahar are likely to make their debut on the back of some decent shows. Bhuvneshwar and Khaleel are the seamers.

Predicted XI

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed

Probable Top Performers

Evin Lewis- Windies | Rohit Sharma– India

Broadcast Details

TV – Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 1 HD, Sony Ten 3, Sony Ten 3 HD

Online– Sony LIV

Match Timings – 20:00 IST and 10:30 local

The team, batting first should come out trumps.