Pollard makes four changes to his side. He wants West Indies to field better and “put all pieces together”. Rohit is excited to look forward to the challenge, and he too confirms four tweaks to the side. He says Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan will be opening the batting.
ICC Rankings Test, ODI & T20I
Thakur: “I think this is the best I have bowled in the death overs. I have done it for CSK, but doing it for India is a big thing. You have to be ready to use your variations. Batsmen will swing in the death overs. You have to be mentally tough. If he hits a six, you let it go. The next ball is important. The basic idea was to bowl wide yorkers from my end. The line has to be a wider line because of the field. If they hit in the gap, that’s fine – they are here to play.”
India vs West Indies 2nd T20I Highlights today, Friday 18-2-2022 – 2nd T20I (N), West Indies tour of India from Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Form guide
Last five completed T20Is; the most recent first
India: WWWWW
West Indies: LLWLW
Harshal: “The ball was holding on to the wicket. We wanted to keep it fuller. We had that conversation that we wanted to bowl fuller on this wicket. What is your go-to delivery is key. Just focusing on execution rather than what the batsman is going to do. There was a bit of dampness in the wicket because of the weather today because there was no sun [out] today. That made it a little difficult to bowl. Apart from that, there wasn’t a lot of dew.”
India have lost the toss and will bat first.
India team: 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Suryakumar Yadav, 6 Venkatesh Iyer, 7 Harshal Patel, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Avesh Khan.
West Indies team: 1 Shai Hope, 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rovman Powell,5 Roston Chase, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Fabian Allen, 9 R Shepherd, 10 Hayden Walsh, 11 Dominic Drakes.
Match Timings: 13:30 GMT | 19:00 Local
Umpires – Jayaraman Madanagopal, KN Ananthapadmanabhan
TV Umpires – Nitin Menon
Match Referee – Manu Nayyar
Reserve Umpire – Virender Sharma
Match number – T20I no. 1479
Post Match Presentation
West Indies captain Pollard is first to speak:
“We were in the game until the 15th over. We got a good start – 70-odd after seven or eight overs – and we weren’t able to capitalize. In this T20 series, Nicholas showed his consistency. Rovman Powell shows that he wants to be a part and parcel of the white-ball teams. Coming to India is always going to be difficult. We had an opportunity to win the ODI series as well. These guys are finding their feet… Looking forward to what the future holds. From our T20 perspective, we had the experience but didn’t get the job done. With the World Cup eight months away, the more cricket these guys play, the better they are going to get.”
Double blow! Suryakumar Yadav is the Player of the Match and the Player of the Series:
“Just wanted to replicate what I did in the first game. It was important to stay till the end when Rohit got out. We had a chat in our team meetings as well as how we are going to react in such situations. I’m just trying to repeat the same things which I have been doing in the last few games… whenever the situation arrives, I try to stay there till the end. Be a little harsh on yourself in the nets, that’s it!”
Rohit Sharma – after sweeping 3-0 again:
“For us as a team – whether we chase or bat first – we have a challenge. We just want to keep improving. Our middle order is relatively new. We just wanted to tick the boxes. Happy with the series. I think we got what we wanted from this series. [Inexperience in the side] is one thing we spoke of. We are a good chasing team. A lot of guys are missing from the squad. There are different challenges when you bat first.
It was important to get something out of the way. Guys getting the team out of difficult situations – that’s what we wanted. Good signs for us as a group. The biggest takeaway in the ODI series was the middle-order batting and making it count. I was [also] very impressed with our seam bowling. Even here, Avesh was on debut, Harshal hasn’t played too many games and Thakur hasn’t been playing consistently. It was a good challenge for us to defend in both games, and we did well. [For the Sri Lanka series] We wanted to make sure guys are fresh. With the World Cup, we want to make sure guys get game time. I will not look at the opposition, I will look at what we have to do as a team. Hopefully, we tick the box of ground fielding and catching as well.”
