Basseterre, Jul 31, 2022, IANS

Basseterre (St Kitts), July 31 (IANS) After registering a comprehensive 68-run win in the first T20I at Trinidad, India will be aiming to make it 2-0 against the West Indies in the second T20I at Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts on Monday.

With both teams now making the travel to St Kitts & Nevis for back-to-back matches, it presents a great chance for India to continue their winning juggernaut on tour.

At the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, India outplayed West Indies not only in all three departments of the game, but also in terms of playing eleven combination. India opted for three spinners in Ravi Bishnoi, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja while West Indies played just one spinner in Akeal Hosein.

Eventually, Bishnoi, Ashwin and Jadeja shared five wickets between themselves as they exposed West Indies batting issues in terms of facing spin while left-arm spinner Hosein took 1-14 in his four overs. Apart from this, West Indies also erred in ground fielding and allowed Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik to play critical knocks with the bat.

Thanks to Sharma and Karthik, India continued with their aggressive batting template in T20Is, posting 190 batting first. But they will need to sort out who opens the batting with Sharma in absence of KL Rahul, as India sprung a surprise by promoting Suryakumar Yadav to open the batting with Rishabh Pant, who opened in two matches against England, slotted in middle-order.

Apart from spinners doing well, India will also be pleased with how senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and young left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh went through their overs, taking wickets with accuracy and sorted approach to deny West Indies batting the start they needed.

West Indies, on the other hand, would like to brush aside the thrashing they got from India after having come into the series with a 2-0 win over Bangladesh in T20Is. Despite the return of Shimron Hetmyer into the side, he didn't bring the desired impact West Indies would have liked to see in the batting department.

With no Evin Lewis, Hetmyer, Kyle Mayers and captain Nicholas Pooran still hold the aces with the bat. In bowling, they could bring in leg-spinner Hayden Walsh Jr to partner Hosein in spin, but who goes out will be the main question for them. The hosts' need a collective effort to square the series and register their first win of the ongoing tour against a confident Indian outfit.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh.

West Indies: Nicholas Pooran (captain), Rovman Powell (vice-captain), Shamarh Brooks, Dominic Drakes, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Devon Thomas and Hayden Walsh Jr.