After a thumping win over Pakistan on Friday in their World Twenty20 opener, Team India will now have to brace up for the defending champions West Indies when the two team square up against each other in Mirpur on Sunday. Added to that Indian bowlers have to gear up for the firepower of Chris Gayle.
The Indians have started the tournament as they comfortably overcame Pakistan's resistance thanks to some impressive bowling and solid batting. The spin trio of Amit Mishra, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja impressed the most as they restricted Pakistan to just 130 for 7 and later on some impressive batting by Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma helped them reach the target with ease.
But West Indies will be a different ball game all together. Although the spin trio are in good form but a rampaging Gayle can take away the game at any point of time with his blazing bat and he will surely be the man to India would like to get early. Although, Gayle does not has the best of footwork as he believes in 'stand and hit' technique and the Indian pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami can't afford to have an off day. But spinners might still trouble the 'Jamaican Marauder' as Ashwin successfully employing a round the wicket technique to bottle up batsman and Mishra inviting him to come out by flighting his deliveries, it will be a challenge for Gayle to devise a counter strategy.
On the other hand, the Indian batsmen had an easy day in office against Pakistan with a smaller target to chase. Both Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma added solid 50-run stand for the openeing wicket but once again they failed to make most of the start and would be hoping to finally get a big score under their belt. Virat Kohli once again proved about his worth by seeing India through in the last match along with Suresh Raina, who also got his touch back and these are positive signs.
Yuvraj Singh had an off day as he failed with the bat and dropped a catch as well, so this match against Windies can be a good opportunity for him to get few runs in order to keep his place intact ahead of Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order. One have a feeling he will play the whole tournament unless something goes horribly wrong.
It will be interesting to see how Indian batsmen will counter Sunil Narine on Bangladesh's slow, turning pitches. Having proved himself in the Indian Premier League and international cricket, Narine is a tremendous asset and may well find himself taking the new ball at times. Ravi Rampaul, Krishmar Santomie, Bravo and Narine make up for a lethal bowling combination and an engaging contest between bat and ball could be expected.
India: MS Dhoni (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra
Windies: Darren Sammy (c), Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Andre Russell, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine, Krishmar Santomie
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