Netherlands will play a T20I quadrangular series in Oman from 8 to 18 February next year before travelling to India to play a number of first-class sides

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2018Netherlands have included uncapped offspinner Leon Turmaine and seamer Sebastiaan Braat in their squad for their tour of India in February-March next year. Netherlands will play a T20I quadrangular series, involving Oman, Ireland, and Scotland in Oman, from 8 to 18 February before travelling to India to play a number of first-class sides.

Squads

For Oman tour: Pieter Seelaar (capt), Wesley Barresi, Ben Cooper, Ryan ten Doeschate, Scott Edwards, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, Shane Snater, Roelof van der Merwe, Tobias Visée, Sikander Zulfiqar
For India tour: Pieter Seelaar (capt), Wesley Barresi, Sebastiaan Braat, Ben Cooper, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards, Vivian Kingma, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, Hidde Overdijk, Leon Turmaine, Tobias Visée, Saqib Zulfiqar, Sikander Zulfiqar

County players Ryan ten Doeschate, Paul van Meekeren, Roelof van der Merwe and Timm van der Gugten were all named in the T20I squad for the Oman tour, while Michael Rippon and Logan van Beek, who represent Otago and Wellington respectively in New Zealand’s domestic circuit, were left out.The decision is likely to have resulted from a scheduling clash with the Plunket Shield, New Zealand’s premier first-class competition, which is slated to run until March 20. While Rippon had played two ODIs for Netherlands, against Nepal, in August this year, van Beek hasn’t represented Netherlands in two years, having last played in a T20I against Bangladesh in the 2016 World T20.However, Netherlands will be bolstered by the presence of the county quartet, each of whom is seasoned in the limited-overs formats.None among ten Doeschate, van Meekeren, van der Merwe, van der Gugten, van Beek and Rippon was selected for the India tour, though. Travelling alongside the Braat-Turmaine duo are Hidde Overdjik (1 T20I), Saqib Zulfiqar (2 T20Is), and Sikander Zulfiqar (5 T20Is). Left-arm spinner Pieter Seelaar will captain both squads.In preparation for the twin assignments, a number of players will travel to La Manga in Spain for a training camp in January 2019.

The Sylhet Sixers captain switched stance midway through the 19th over to smash 6, 4, 4 on the way to a half-century

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2019Ever since his involvement in the sandpaper scandal at Cape Town last year, not much has gone right for David Warner in his year spent in exile from the Australian team on the T20 franchise circuit. That is until the left-hand batsman went right. Literally.Warner turned heads when he took guard right-handed against Chris Gayle midway through the 19th over of the Sylhet Sixers innings against Rangpur Riders on Wednesday. Judging by the resulting performance, he may be tempted to do it more often.
The Australian captain of Sylhet was on 45 off 32 balls at the time and had started the over on strike to Gayle with a two, but then couldn’t get either of the next two balls away. Ahead of the fourth ball, he swapped stance at the crease and, with Gayle coming around the wicket, smashed the fourth ball with a golf-style straight drive over Gayle’s head for six to bring up his half-century.Gayle countered by going over the wicket but Warner stayed right-handed for the fifth ball and reached out to sweep a low full toss behind square for four. For the last ball, Warner reverse-swept Gayle, not middling it but still getting enough of it to go to the boundary. Warner celebrated during the sequence by doing a hip-shimmy dance and appeared to exchange a few words with Gayle at the end of the over. Warner ended the innings unbeaten on 61 off 36 balls.”It was one of those things [batting right-handed] at the back of my mind as I couldn’t get Chris [Gayle] away because of his height and the lengths that he was bowling,” Warner said at the post-match presentation. “I play golf right-handed, so I thought I might as well come and swing and clear the ropes. It came off.”Warner, who is naturally right-handed with his throwing arm and initially batted right-handed as a child, has made a habit at training sessions of spending time batting right-handed. Gayle perhaps should not have been totally surprised at Warner’s method since the Australian attempted to employ the right-handed stance in a T20I against the Gayle-captained West Indies in 2010.However, Warner was denied by the on-field umpires, who allegedly told him at the time that it was against the spirit of the game and that it could produce a lengthy stall because the fielding side would need to adjust their field settings to comply with regulations. But Warner would not be denied in Sylhet, as he pulled out all the stops in an effort to get the Sixers out of last place on the BPL table.

Ganesh Satish and Atharwa Taide play game-changing innings as Rest of India go down

The Report by Sreshth Shah in Nagpur16-Feb-2019Hanuma Vihari may have struck two magnificent centuries in the Irani Cup tie, but it was overshadowed by Vidarbha’s collective effort, which helped them trump Rest of India and lift the trophy for the second season in a row.When the two teams shook hands with Vidarbha needing only 11 runs to win the match – they had five wickets in hand – they not only won the trophy on offer, but also completed the double of winning the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Cup for the second season in a row, much to the delight of a sizeable Saturday crowd at Nagpur’s VCA Stadium.Vidarbha started the day on 37 for one, still 243 runs adrift on a final-day pitch that wasn’t getting any easier to bat on. But in 18-year-old Atharva Taide – a late injury replacement for Wasim Jaffer – they found the right man to anchor the innings through the first session. His 72, together with R Sanjay’s 42, ensured Vidarbha stayed rock solid early on, and then under the baking sun that took a lot out of the RoI bowlers, they cashed in. Their 116-run stand for the second wicket wiped out a large chunk of the target.Taide carried on to score 72, and Ganesh Satish, the only professional in the side in Jaffer’s absence, then steered the chase to the end, falling for 87 with Vidarbha inches short of the target – the teams agreed to call off the game at that point – and walked off to raucous applause. Wicketkeeper-batsman Akshay Wadkar remained unbeaten when the contest ended.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Earlier, Sanjay and Taide displayed patience as well as skill to help Vidarbha dominate proceedings. Taide struck two boundaries off fast bowler Ankit Rajpoot – one a measured tickle down to fine-leg, the other a tentative push through the slip cordon – to begin the day’s boundary count. Sanjay, at the other end, bunted whatever was aimed at the stumps, while happily leaving the ones that were not.The first six of the innings came just before the first drinks break, when Taide came down the track to play legspinner Rahul Chahar with the turn. After the break, Sanjay joined in, smacking left-arm pacer Tanveer-ul-Haq through the covers for four and then, when left-arm spinner Dharmendrasingh Jadeja was introduced, smashed one straight into the sightscreen.Ajinkya Rahane, the RoI captain, brought in an attacking field for the spinners thereafter, hoping, perhaps, for the batsmen to err in judgment and play a false shot, but that spell of play was carefully negated too. And in the 41st over of the innings, a single to long-off brought up Taide’s second first-class half-century.It was important for the young Taide not to lose his focus after reaching the landmark, and he didn’t, continuing to offer the straight bat to the full deliveries from the spinners, and padding away the ones that pitched outside leg stump. But Sanjay, the senior partner, couldn’t carry on as he was trapped lbw eight runs short of his half-century when a quicker one from Chahar slid into his pads.Taide and Satish then added 30 more runs before the youngster fell lbw to Chahar, and Satish proceeded to put up 83 more for the fourth wicket in the company of Mohit Kale in the afternoon. The two looked set to finish the session unseparated, but Kale was dismissed off the final ball before tea.After the break, Wadkar held up one end while Satish opened up, perhaps with an eye on a possible century. Two boundaries off Chahar brought the target down to only 11 but Satish fell trying to pull part-timer Vihari over the midwicket boundary, only to hole out to substitute fielder Sandeep Warrier in the deep. Though there was enough time left for Vidarbha to record an outright win, the two teams agreed to call it off.The chase wasn’t supposed to be easy. On the fourth evening, Vidarbha had lost their captain Faiz Fazal for a duck after Vihari – together with Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer – had helped get to a declaration on 374 for three – a lead of 279.That Vidarbha had nearly a 100-run advantage after the first-innings exchanges was thanks to allrounder Akshay Karnewar, later named the Man of the Match. He struck the team’s only century of the match to rescue Vidarbha after they were 168 for five in response to RoI’s first-innings score of 330. Wadkar, too, struck a crucial 73 while Sanjay chipped in with 65 to take them to 425, and Vidarbha were assured of victory if the game ended in a draw.RoI had to push for a result in their favour after that, but it wasn’t to be. In the absence of offspinner K Gowtham, who didn’t bowl after the second day because of a shoulder injury, their largely inexperienced attack could not find the purchase from the pitch they would have hoped for. Add to that some smart batting from Vidarbha’s top order on the final day, and only one result was possible.

A rapid fifty from Matt Critchley and Alex Hughes’ four-for set up a comfortable 53-run win

ECB Reporters Network19-Apr-2019Matt Critchley played another match-changing one-day innings to set up a 53-run victory for Derbyshire over Northamptonshire in the Royal London Cup match at Derby.Critchley made an unbeaten 64 from 51 balls, his first List A fifty for Derbyshire, as the Falcons recovered from 137 for 5 to 268 for 6 with skipper Billy Godleman top-scoring with 87. Despite an unbeaten 50 from Luke Proctor, the Steelbacks never threatened to chase that down and Alex Hughes’ best List A figures of 4 for 44 saw the visitors bowled out for 215 with 37 balls to spare, their second North Group defeat.The Falcons began badly when Luis Reece nicked the third ball of the innings but Wayne Madsen and Godleman took the score to 50 before two wickets in successive overs checked the scoring rate.Madsen cut Jason Holder for consecutive fours before he edged Ben Sanderson and Hughes quickly followed when he was caught behind driving at the West Indies captain.South African batsman Leus du Plooy – signed this week on a Kolpak deal – impressed on his debut until he chopped Blessing Muzarabani into his stumps and when Tom Lace steered the Zimbabwe paceman into the hands of third man, the Falcons were in trouble..But although Godleman struggled to time the ball, he anchored the innings while Critchley provided the momentum in a stand that added 84 in 13 overs. Godleman whipped Nathan Buck over midwicket for the only six of the innings but played on to the next ball as he tried to run it to third man.The Steelbacks had prevented the Falcons from getting away until the last over of the innings, which cost 17 as Critchley moved around the crease to hit Sanderson for three fours.Even so, the total looked below par but that changed as the Falcons blew away the top order in the first nine overs with Hughes taking two outstanding slip catches.Josh Cobb edged a drive at Logan van Beek in the second over and the dangerous Richard Levi went in the next when he tried to run Ravi Rampaul and was snared by Hughes diving to his right at second slip.Hughes swooped in front of first to remove Alex Wakeley and the Steelbacks were in disarray when Rob Newton was run out in a mix up over a second with Adam Rossington.Hughes spilled another sharp chance when Rossington edged van Beek and that threatened to prove expensive when he drove the next two balls to the boundary. Rossington pulled Reece just over the head of deep midwicket for six but Hughes struck in his first over when he found just enough away movement to bowl him for 21.Any chance the Steelbacks had now rested with Holder but after hitting six fours in a 24-ball 30, he missed a big drive at Hughes and although Proctor and Sanderson added 73, it only delayed the inevitable.

Virat Kohli said cracking in pressure moments has been the story of his team’s season

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Apr-20190:51

Siraj’s no-ball in the 18th over was the turning point – Negi

Kolkata Knight Riders’ win on Friday was the ninth instance of a team winning an IPL game when more than 90 were needed off the last seven overs. On six of those occasions, Royal Challengers Bangalore were the bowling side. It’s become a painfully familiar tale for Royal Challengers, who possess a batting line-up that seems to constantly carry the team. Captain Virat Kohli said as much after his team recorded a fifth consecutive loss in the season.”If we bowl like that, [and] we don’t show composure in pressure moments, we deserve to be where we are in the table,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation. “There’s no rocket science behind it. We haven’t played the kind of cricket we should be playing at the level of the IPL and if you bowl like that, with not enough bravery in the crunch moments, then it’s always going to be difficult when you have power-hitters like [Andre] Russell in the opposition.”I think we needed to be more clinical in the last four overs. That was just one-dimensional in the end and nothing came off. We cracked a little under pressure and that’s been the story of the season.”Russell has been on a streak that is far removed from the type Royal Challengers are having. He’s made scores of 48* off 13, 62 off 28, 48 off 17, and 49* of 19, with a combined 22 sixes in four games. Almost each time, he has single-handedly turned the match for his team, whether they have batted first or second. On Friday, the total being chased – 206 – was the highest Knight Riders have ever chased, and the highest they had been set this season.Kohli reckoned Royal Challengers could have added 20-25 more to the total, but didn’t let hindsight come in the way of the glaring problem at hand.”I wasn’t really happy getting out that moment [in the 18th over],” he said. “[We] could have added 20-25 more had we gone on. And then AB [de Villiers] didn’t get much strike in the end as well. He lost a bit of momentum too. In hindsight they [scores] are never good, but if you can’t defend 75 in four overs then you don’t know how many are enough. You can’t have 100 in the last over to defend. You have to look at things in hindsight but I thought the runs were enough on the board. If you saw the ball, the way it spun and stuck in the wicket, it wasn’t that easy. But we just didn’t have composure.”Royal Challengers have a day to recover, before they host Delhi Capitals on Sunday, which means little time to think about major changes. He suggested the best way to go about such a break was to give the players some space.”We have a bit of a chat about what went wrong and what happened in the game,” he said of the immediate response to the loss. “But apart from that there’s not much to say. You can talk as much as you want but you’ve got to go on the field and actually do the job. [I don’t think] talking enough helps all the time, you just need to give the guys a little bit of space, try to come back stronger in the next game, try to get on a roll on a winning note. It’s been a difficult season for us so far but we’re still optimistic about our chances and we just have to believe that we can turn things around.”

The hope that the South African would bring some mega-star quality to the BBL have been dashed and raised further questions about the direction the tournament is heading

Daniel Brettig13-May-2019From start to finish, a whiff of panic lingered over the way the Big Bash League and its clubs handled AB de Villiers’ brief and ultimately dead end flirtation with the tournament. As the most game-changing addition to Australian cricket, and indeed sport, in well over a decade, the BBL deserved better than to play host to a saga that had no winners.Whether it was Cricket Australia, the clubs or their broadcasters Seven and Fox Sports/News Corp, the eagerness to secure de Villiers after he declined to take part in the tournament last season seemed motivated as much by worry about the summer to come as it was by robust belief in the strength of the competition that already exists.De Villiers and his management, having fielded offers by more than half the clubs, indicated on Friday that he was no longer interested, providing no concrete reasons other than to complain about the “repeated media leaks” about his interest and then the terms by which he would be secured.Given the length of the tournament, the constraints of the BBL salary cap and the close proximity of news that Australia’s best white-ball players would be away in India for an ODI tour during much of January, thus depriving the league of much of its best homegrown talent, the sense that it was “AB or bust” left plenty of questions hanging in the air.ALSO READ: AB de Villiers pulls back from BBL interestFor one thing, the sort of money that needed to be cobbled together, via the successful club, CA’s marketing funds and the broadcasters – both of whom were involved in discussions around signing de Villiers to “value-add” deals to help get him to the figure he desired – made a mockery of the payments usually available to players taking part in the tournament, while raising the issue of whether de Villiers would be in Australia as a cricketer or a billboard.A figure in the region of A$350,000 for a handful of games made even the headlining five-year, A$1 million deal signed by Chris Lynn with the Brisbane Heat in 2017 look puny. Global market pressures from the BPL and elsewhere forced CA, the clubs and broadcasters to raise their eyes above the usual sorts of deals, but there were plenty of voices questioning the integrity of an arrangement that would allow the successful – most likely major market – club to benefit from one player being paid so much outside the cap in broad daylight.Not for the first time, tails seemed to be wagging dogs. The first indications of de Villiers coming to Australia only became apparent after it was clear that the BCCI would insist on a tour of India in mid-January, duly depriving Fox Sports of the exclusive ODI content on home soil it had paid the lion’s share of a A$1.18 billion rights deal to secure. ESPNcricinfo understands that broadcasters were contacted and asked to put in lucrative commentary offers to de Villiers’ management by way of sweetening the deal, this after CA had itself written to the clubs to indicate it was willing to put in extra funds in the region of A$50,000 to help add ballast to any club’s offer.Such exchanges bore the stamp not of the maturing and successful league that the BBL now is, but instead of the nascent exhibition tournament that it was eight years ago. Back then in 2011, similar package deals ensured Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen, to name two, were secured as high profile talent.Pat Cummins made a rare appearance for Sydney Thunder•Getty Images

Elsewhere Chris Gayle was attracted to the Sydney Thunder on a deal that was believed to constitute near enough to half the club’s entire salary cap. Entering season number eight, having grown from a start-up as part of Fox Sports’ then modest domestic rights deal to being worth roughly half of the total $1.18 billion rights value, the BBL really should be past such dealings.Imagine, for a moment, a salary capped league such as the AFL in which broadcasters were approached to offer extra money outside the cap to a particular player to ensure their arrival at a club in the league’s preferred market. While the constraints of the BBL cap are determined as much by CA’s wider strategic goal of maintaining the primacy of international cricket as by any cash shortage, there has to be a more systematic and professional way to go about things.That, of course, is if the BBL is to be viewed as a league with genuine club support, and not an exhibition tournament where the overall “product” watched by as many viewers as possible regardless of the competing teams or their context means more than anything. This tension has been evident in discussions about the shape of the competition for next season, from whether the finals series should include the current four teams or be raised to five out of eight, as well as the aforementioned issues around marquee recruitment.Undoubtedly the exponential increase in the number of games per team has created problems, but so too the vagaries of pitches such as problematic drop-ins at Docklands Stadium – home to the Melbourne Renegades – and the Sydney Showgrounds – home to the Thunder.Among the most intriguing learnings from last summer was that some of the biggest television ratings for the entire tournament took place when the Heat’s Ben Cutting and Max Bryant laid waste to the Melbourne Stars by chasing down 156 inside 10 overs – an audience not for a contest, but for freakishly big hitting.That sort of display was most certainly in the minds of all those parties working to get de Villiers to Australia. In their future decisions, the integrity and longer term growth of a competition must take greater precedence. All the scrambling made the BBL look less like the biggest addition to cricket down under in decades, and more like a league struggling to stay afloat.

‘Where the white balls have been quite prominent in that you can see their quarter seams, and everything with the ball but now it is fully covered’

Sidharth Monga in Bristol06-Jun-2019This was supposed to be a high-scoring World Cup with the bowlers just making up the numbers, but there has been a much closer contest between bat and ball. And according to one of the men responsible for these low scores, Trent Boult, this might all be down to the glossier Kookaburra balls made available for this tournament.Unlike with the red ball, it is hard to tell from the outside how shiny the white ball is. The lot for this World Cup is shinier, says Boult, which has helped the fast bowlers swing it more. Kookaburra, however, is of the opinion that any change in the ball is part of its normal evolution, while the ICC says it is happy with the results yielded.”The ball is actually different for this tournament,” Boult said after New Zealand’s two-wicket win against Bangladesh in another low-scoring match. “They have got a different gloss on them. Or they are painted differently, so I don’t know if you have talked about it too much but there has definitely been a little bit more swing. Where the white balls have been quite prominent in that you can see their quarter seams, and everything with the ball but now it is fully covered. It is nice to hold in the hand. It is moving a little bit. Yeah, we are happy.”ALSO READ: How Kookaburra balls came to rule the worldWhen asked if it was just the ball or the conditions, too, having an impact on the run-scoring, Boult said: “It is hard one. I want to say a lot of it is the ball. But, yeah, conditions have been pretty good all around the world. But I believe there should be a period at the start of play where it is battle of bat versus ball. And it is an even one. It is nice to see the ball moving like it is at the moment.”Boult said the ball for this World Cup felt a bit like the pink ball used in day-night Tests, which has more lacquer on it to help it last a minimum of 80 Test overs. He didn’t know, though, if this was a conscious move from the ICC or Kookaburra. “I have no idea why they have done it like that to be honest. The pink ball was like that. With the pink ball, you couldn’t see the quarter seam. Whether they have gone with feedback on how the pink ball performed, I am not sure.”The white Kookaburra has been a topic of debate ever since it stopped swinging just after the 2015 World Cup. During that tournament, Boult and Tim Southee hooped it round corners to form an ultra-aggressive New Zealand plan where they bowled long spells at the start of the innings. Ever since then, the white ball has rarely swung conventionally, even for bowlers who will extract every last bit of swing available.”I can’t really remember the ball [used in 2015], to be honest, but I can remember it swinging,” Boult said when asked if he saw a big difference between the balls used in 2015 the World Cup and just after. “I don’t know. It is just one of those things. It hasn’t swung like that in New Zealand ever since. Great feeling and great tournament obviously to be a part of. Hopefully we can replicate some of the scenes from back then to 2019.”It turns out this is not a conscious effort on the part of either the ICC or Kookaburra nor is it an overnight development. It might just be natural evolution. “There’s been no directive on changing the white ball for this World Cup, nor anything definitively changed,” Kookaburra told ESPNcricinfo. “There is a constant evolution that dates right back to World Series Cricket in 1977 and through to the pink ball for day-night Test cricket, with improved hardness and finish of the ball the key objectives; we research, test and improve, and this is the result.”The ICC confirmed to ESPNcricinfo it has made no specific request to Kookaburra in this regard. The ball manufacturers, though, are quite happy with the results. “We’re really pleased with the feedback on the white ball in this World Cup to date. Our aim is to provide balance for swing, seam, spin and the batters, and this positive feedback has been consistent with what we’ve heard for the last two years around the world. Perhaps that general improvement is just more obvious right now that we’re on the global stage at a World Cup but it’s not an overnight change; it’s [been] years in the making.”

All the live updates and analyses from the crucial England v New Zealand game

Daniel Brettig03-Jul-2019

Wood, who consistently exceeded 90mph during the World Cup, felt pain in his left side during the final against New Zealand but bowl through it to help win the title

George Dobell02-Aug-2019Mark Wood will miss the rest of the season as a result of the side strain sustained during the World Cup final.Wood, who consistently exceeded 90mph during the tournament, felt pain in his left side during the final against New Zealand. But with the game in the balance continued to bowl at a high pace and almost certainly exacerbated the strain. The winners’ medal he has to show for it will, no doubt, ease the pain of missing the Ashes.Wood will also have surgery on his right knee to clear up some excess cartilage. In normal circumstances, however, that issue would only be expected to put him out of action for two or three weeks. It is the side strain that will keep him on the sidelines for longer.While England have intimated they are set to play a second string side in the Test series in New Zealand – the series does not count towards the World Test Championship – they are likely to take the T20Is that proceed that series much more seriously. There is a T20 World Cup in little more than a year and Wood will have a good chance of playing in it. His Test return may have to wait until the South Africa tour.Of England bowlers, only Jofra Archer claimed more than Wood’s 18 wickets in the World Cup. Wood also claimed his Test-best figures of 5 for 41 in the only Test he has played in the last year. Bowling unusually fast, he was player of the match for his performance in that Test in St Lucia and would have been a key part of England’s Ashes plans had he been fit.Wood’s career has been blighted by injury issues. He has had a succession of problems with his ankle and, until the St Lucia Test, had struggled to turn his potential into something more tangible. But since utilising a longer run-up, he has consistently bowled at speeds above 90mph and enjoyed much better results as a consequence.

The visitors are yet to taste defeat on the white-ball leg of their Caribbean tour

The Preview by Hemant Brar13-Aug-20197:52

Ganga: India need not pre-determine their No. 4 batsman

Big Picture

In the second ODI at Queen’s Park Oval, chasing 270 in 46 overs, West Indies needed 91 off 71 at one stage with six wickets in hand and a set batsman in Nicholas Pooran at the crease.Percentage cricket for a few more overs was perhaps the way to go, but Pooran played a shot that was a microcosm of West Indies’ problems in ODI cricket. Skipping down the track in a premeditated manner, he ended up mistiming a pull to Virat Kohli at midwicket.Pooran’s wicket triggered a collapse and the hosts slipped from 179 for 4 to 182 for 8, with the result all but decided.At 23, Pooran is a young man with a bright future and the promise of winning many games for his team but West Indies will be hurting after squandering the opportunity to go 1-0 up in the series.However, it wasn’t all gloom for them. Their bowlers had brought them into the match by conceding just 67 runs in the last ten overs. Come Wednesday, West Indies will have another chance – this time to level the series – as the two teams face each other at the same venue for the final ODI.India, on the other hand, will be aiming to finish the white-ball leg of the tour undefeated. As far as their search for the No. 4 batsman is concerned, it looks like Rishabh Pant has his captain’s backing for now. Though he didn’t quite convince during his 20 off 35 balls in the last match, Pant should once again slot in at No. 4.Shikhar Dhawan is yet to strike form after his return from the hand injury that cut his World Cup short, but it’s far from a worry for the team management at this moment.

Form guide

West Indies LWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
India WLWWL

In the spotlight

From the start of 2018 to the start of the World Cup, Shai Hope scored 1460 runs in 28 ODIs at an average of 66.36. More than half those runs came in just eight innings, while opening the batting. At the World Cup, where he batted mostly at No. 3, Hope had lukewarm returns – 274 runs at 34.25. After being dismissed for 5 in the second ODI, Hope will look forward to getting back among the runs.Bhuvneshwar Kumar clings onto a return catch•Associated Press

Fifteen wickets in five innings. A bowling average of 6.73, a strike rate of 14.0. Only Curtly Ambrose has more wickets than Bhuvneshwar Kumar at Queen’s Park Oval. With the game in the balance, it was his three wickets in seven balls that turned the second ODI in India’s favour. India will be hoping for an encore from the swing bowler.

Team news

Evin Lewis, who struggled with his calf injury during the second ODI, has recovered well after a day’s rest and should be part of the playing XI. Fabian Allen is also fit and most likely will replace Oshane Thomas who went for 32 in his four wicketless overs on Sunday.West Indies (probable): 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Shai Hope (wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Carlos Brathwaite, 9 Fabian Allen, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Sheldon CottrellWith the series still not decided, India might once again field an unchanged XI.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Kuldeep Yadav

Pitch and conditions

The weather is expected to be humid once again, with a forecast for showers throughout the day. Although teams batting first have won five of the last six completed ODIs here, the chance of rain might tempt the captains to bat second.The match will be played on the same pitch as the last one.

Stats and trivia

• As an opener in ODIs, Hope has scored 860 runs at an average of 95.55 and a strike rate of 92.47. Batting elsewhere, his 1672 runs have come at an average of 38.00, with a strike rate of 69.00.
• In his last 20 ODIs, Kuldeep Yadav has taken only 29 wickets at an average of 32.62. Prior to that, he had 67 wickets in 33 games at an average of 20.07.
• Currently on 96 wickets from 53 ODIs, Kuldeep has a chance to break Mohammad Shami’s record (55 matches) for the fastest Indian to 100-ODI wickets.

Quotes

“The preparation is good going into the last game. The previous game we cut the preparation short [because of the rain] but today we got a full practice [session] in. The boys are in good spirits and we are looking forward to go out there tomorrow and win the game and draw the series.”