India and West Indies brace for high-scoring decider in Bengaluru

It all started as a bit of a lark. West Indies, not even part of the last ODI World Cup and still fighting to get into the next one, arrived in India three weeks or so ago. A time when India were taking more seriously the Asian Games where no other team sent their strongest squad.

West Indies must forgive us for thinking, two matches in, "now you know why they need to play qualifiers", "now you know why India can prioritise the Asian Games". During the third ODI, fresh from the heartbreak of scoring 400 and losing, Shai Hope led a successful chase of 352 with such ease that we went, "Wait a minute, what if they had won the tosses when the series was alive?"

Come the T20Is, both sides were reinforced sans the ones that India must keep in cotton wool. West Indies levelled the series by chasing down 250 in Ranchi, a reminder of what might have been had India not had Jasprit Bumrah in the World Cup semi-final earlier this year. You would have thought India were still the superior unit when they defended successfully for the first time during this tour, but West Indies did them one better by doing so in Hyderabad.

Now we have India, not long ago the greatest T20 side put together, vulnerable without Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. And we have West Indies, No. 7 in ICC's T20I rankings and No. 10 in ODIs, one win from walking away with even spills from a tour of India. Equally importantly a first series win for any visiting side in India since February 2019. This could end up as a series we talk about for years to come.

And we have the poor bowlers from either side looking to hang on to any little help they can get. No series or tournament longer than three matches has ever had runs scored at a quicker rate than the 11.49 in this unexpected thriller.

And it will all go down in Bengaluru, where we have small boundaries, good bounce and high likelihood of dew, which has thankfully been absent in the last two matches. All bets are now off.

India: LWLWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
West Indies: WLWLW

This has been the tour of Hope: 278 ODI runs off 248 balls, 261 T20I runs of 135 balls, he has gone past Brian Lara as the second-highest ODI centurion from West Indies and past Chris Gayle as the highest in T20Is. There have been two kinds of matches on this tour: ones in which India have dismissed Hope and others in which they haven't. They have won all four in which Hope got out, they have lost all three in which Hope stayed unbeaten. No visiting batter has scored five centuries put together on a bilateral tour of India. Hope has four.

Sanju Samson has not scored hundreds, but he has looked effortless in scoring two half-centuries. His success is tactically important for India. They might not have won the game in Hyderabad, but in scoring a half-century inside the third over, Samson absolutely dominated the one bowler who threatens to slow Abhishek Sharma down, Roston Chase. He has got India's two highly feared batters, Abhishek and Ishan Kishan, twice each and conceded at under 1.5 runs a ball to them despite bowling extensively in the powerplay.

The reason for leaving Kuldeep Yadav out in Indore persists in Bengaluru: small boundaries. Unless we get a surprisingly dry pitch with turn on it, India are likely to retain their XI from Hyderabad.

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

West Indies might have found their best combination with Jewel Andrew replacing Kamil Pooran at the top of the order, Romario Shepherd back after injury. Despite an economy rate of 14.17 for Shamar Joseph, West Indies are likely to retain him because they don't have another option for that kind of pace in the squad.

West Indies (probable): 1 Shai Hope (capt. & wk), 2 Jewel Andrew, 3 Shimron Hetmyer, 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Romario Shepherd, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Shamar Springer, 9 Keemo Paul, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Gudakesh Motie

We know from the IPL that Bengaluru is another batting paradise unless something goes really wrong with the pitch preparation. The weather, though, does not look great. There could be interruptions, possibly significant ones, with the rain.

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