Can West Indies find a way to halt India's home juggernaut?

The facile win for India in the first T20I means that if West Indies have to win this series, they will need to do something that has not been done since June 2022: beat India in consecutive T20I matches in India. Since that set of defeats to South Africa, India's win-loss record in India is 42-9. It has been more than seven years since India lost a T20I series in India.

Having suffered series defeats in Ireland and England, India have quickly racked up a 10-match winning streak once again, threatening their own record of 12 for Full Member teams. Even while missing three of their most irreplaceable players in Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakravarthy, they have enough quality to be able to dominate West Indies in these conditions.

West Indies need the perfect game to be able to beat India in India. The only two times they have been able to do so in 12 attempts in T20Is, they have done so by winning the toss and chasing. Even if they do get that wish, they will need to bowl out of their skins as they have no wristspin, mystery spin or express pace in their ranks to give India's powerhouse batting something different to tackle.

India WWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
West Indies LWLWL

Since the World Cup earlier this year, Axar Patel has been among the best powerplay bowlers in the world, with eight wickets in 15 overs and an economy rate of 4.71. With India resting their big guns in the shortest format, Axar has been an absolute banker for India, often taking on the responsibility of bowling two overs inside the powerplay. In the first T20I, one of those two was a wicket maiden that also included a run-out.

Throughout this tour, Shai Hope has been a shining light for West Indies. In the first match, he didn't try any attacking shot off the four balls he faced from Axar in the powerplay. He perhaps wanted to hand the strike over to his left-hand partner Shimron Hetmyer, but he has the quality to take Axar down by playing him like a medium pacer. He might need to bring his experience of having faced Axar in the Delhi Capitals nets and be more proactive.

Don't expect a chance for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi so early in the series. It was surprising India didn't play Prince Yadav, who is back from injury after an impressive tour of Ireland and England. He could replace Mayank Yadav in the XI that won in Lucknow.

India (probable XI): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Naman Dhir, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Prince Yadav, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

There could be temptation for West Indies to play Amir Jangoo to cash in on his excellent form in the ODIs, but that will mean dropping Kamil Pooran, who has just made his debut. So don't really expect any changes to the XI.

West Indies (probable XI): 1 Shai Hope (capt & wk), 2 Kamil Pooran, 3 Shimron Hetmyer, 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Romario Shepherd, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Shamar Springer, 9 Akeal Hosein, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Matthew Forde.

Ranchi has not hosted a night T20 since January 2023, when New Zealand successfully defended 176 against India. While that will certainly not be a cue for the side winning the toss to bat first, Ranchi doesn't quite have the reputation for being a high-scoring venue. In 10 night matches here, 200 has been breached only once. That said, night T20s are so infrequent in Ranchi that it is hard to say how the pitch will play.

The teams will welcome the mild weather with a forecast high of 27 degrees Celsius and the odd shower, which shouldn't hold up play.