Predicting India’s strongest XI for the second T20I against West Indies

After a very disappointing South Africa tour, India’s strongest XI has played in most of the games against West Indies so far with the comeback of the captain Rohit Sharma and the performances in both the ODIs and the T20Is are on an upward curve.

After winning the ODI series against West Indies by 3-0, India also won the first T20 international quite convincingly yesterday and they will now approach the second T20I tomorrow with the aim of sealing the T20I series as well. India’s strongest XI will play once again tomorrow and it’s only after winning the series that they will try and experiment with a few fringe players on the bench.

Here is India’s strongest XI for the second T20I against West Indies –

Openers (Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan)

Rohit Sharma has timed the ball as fluently as ever since his comeback from injury and is batting a bit more freely at the top of the order as well than he normally does, but the same can’t be said about the youngster Ishan Kishan who struggled quite a lot during his knock of 35 in the first T20I.

Ishan just looked short of game time and couldn’t get the ball off the middle of the bat on a regular basis, but the Indian team management is still likely to persist with Ishan for the whole series and will give him a couple of more games at the top of the order.

Middle-order (Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer)

The new Indian team management has shown no intention to change the batting position of Virat Kohli in either ODI or T20I cricket and the former captain will continue batting at no. 3. Rishabh Pant, because of being a left-hander and a good match-up to left-arm spinners, will bat at 4.

Suryakumar and Venkatesh Iyer will be the designated finishers of the side again. Suryakumar has shown excellent composure while finishing the innings for India recently, and the team management will expect the same from him going ahead as well.

Allrounders (Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel)

The reason why Deepak Chahar has been preferred ahead of Mohammed Siraj and Avesh Khan is because of his ability to bat lower down the order. Although he is a very good swing bowler as well, whenever he has got the opportunity with the bat recently, he has shown he can be a really handy bowling allrounder for India.

Harshal Patel gets into the side mainly for his bowling, but he can also contribute decently with the willow.

Bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal)

While Bhuvneshwar Kumar looks nowhere near the kind of bowler he once used to be, the new management has still backed him and it seems they will keep him in the XI for the whole series before making up their mind.

Apart from Bhuvi, the two leg spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi will continue to be in the XI, as they are not just wicket-taking options in general, but the West Indies batsmen, historically, have had issues against wrist spin.