Okay! This is the big one – India versus West Indies. A contest between the biggest stars of the IPL – Virat Kohli versus Chris Gayle. MS Dhoni versus Dwayne Bravo. Teammates in IPL, rivals on the international stage. Who will win the big semi-final tomorrow?
West Indies may not be much of a Test side, but when it comes to T20 cricket, they are up there with the very best. Indian won’t have it easy against the West Indies because in a lot of ways, both sides are very similar to each other.
Both India and West Indies are dominated by personalities. Each have match winners who can take the match away from the opposition on any given stage. They are individuals who play with passion and style, talent and skill. Dhoni, Sharma, Kohli, Ashwin for India, Gayle, Bravo, Russell, Samuel for the West Indies – they are, by a fair distance the best T20 players on the planet.
India’s plan in T20 cricket has been quite simple – to trust their best players to play conventional and orthodox cricket, not to try anything flashy and hope that it comes off. India can afford to do this as they have Virat Kohli in the team, perhaps the best batsman in the world today – although fans of AB de Villiers might argue otherwise.
West Indies, as everybody knows, don’t like Test cricket and it’s been years since any of their best players like Chris Gayle, Andre Russell or Dwayne Bravo were seen playing Tests. T20 is their game, this is what they are really great at. They are big, powerful, muscular players who trust their instincts. It’s as though T20 cricket was made for this generation of West Indies cricketers.
Indeed, if there’s one team that can beat India in India in T20 cricket, that would be West Indies. Even Australia do not come anywhere close to the West Indies in T20s. But the Windies do have a glaring weakness – it’s their captain Darren Sammy.
Darren Sammy is like a non-playing captain for the West Indies side. He is supposed to be a bowling all-rounder who can bat a bit, but he never bowls or is probably too scared to bowl. And his batting is nothing great to shout home about – Sammy bats at no. 9 and has failed to impress in any of the opportunities that he has been given so far. One really wonders about his role in the West Indies team – it would have made so much sense to discard Sammy and select an extra specialist batsman in the side.
India will have a decision to make tomorrow as Yuvraj Singh is certainly out because of his injury. He could be replaced by Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey or Pawan Negi – none of these players have faced a single ball in the tournament but will now be called upon to perform immediately, on the biggest stage of all.
The Teams
India : 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Manish Pandey/Ajinkya Rahane/Pawan Negi, 6 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish Nehra
West Indies : 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Johnson Charles, 3 Lendl Simmons, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Carlos Brathwaite, 10 Suliemann Benn, 11 Samuel Badree
Match Conditions
The Wankhede in Mumbai is a batsman’s paradise. Bowlers will have no luck here. We expect a lot of runs, and with a clear night in prospect, we will certainly have a full-day’s play.
Watch India play West Indies in the semi-final of the World T20 Cup tomorrow at 7:00 pm live on Star Sports!
