XtraTime Web Desk: Virat Kohli and his boys will look to seal another T20I series win at home against West Indies at Thiruvanthapuram on Sunday. Apart from the masterclass from Kohli and KL Rahul at the top in the T20 series opener at Hyderabad, the hosts will look for an improved show in the bowling and fielding departments.
The Men in Blue claimed their seventh straight T20I win over the visitors, beating them comfortably by six wickets in the first T20I to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.The hosts pulled off their highest successful run chase in a T20 International on Friday night as they chased down a challenging 207 for 5, posted by the Windies, in 18.4 overs.
The Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the power hitting West Indies batsman at Hyderabad. Deepak Chahar, who was impressive in the preceding series against South Africa and Bangladesh, found the going tough as the West Indian batsman went after him. He took one wicket but gave away 54 runs and he will look to execute things better on Sunday.
Returning to the side’s T20 setup, Bhuvneshwar Kumar went wicketless, bleeding 36 runs in his four overs but the weakest link in India’s bowling seems to be Washington Sundar, who has failed to provide the breakthroughs, claiming just two wickets in his last six T20Is.
The 20-year-old from Chennai got the stick from the Windies batsmen and it remains to be seen if India sticks to the same bowling unit or brings in wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav on Sunday.
On the batting front, KL Rahul grabbed the opportunity as an opener with both hands. His 40 ball 62 set the platform for Kohli who finished the job with a career-best 94 not out. Underfire Rishabh Pant too produced two big sixes during his 9 ball cameo which fetched 18 runs.
In the fielding department too, India were far from impressive with Sundar and Rohit Sharma dropping a few catches apart from numerous misfields and the hosts will look to quickly pull up their socks.