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With Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant skipping the dead-rubber, India can give a chance to Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer
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India will be mighty pleased with their gains from the 2-0 lead they have over West Indies, in the lead up to the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia. Their top order – including Virat Kohli – got off the blocks quicker, Suryakumar Yadav cemented his place further in the middle, Venkatesh Iyer provided the finishing touches India expected from him, Harshal Patel showed his death-bowling expertise, Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved he still had it in him, and Ravi Bishnoi bagged wickets with an economy under six in both games combined.
They have also not found much support from their sixth bowler, possibly because they have played only two frontline bowlers and the rest of the job rests with their numerous allrounders. It made India’s chasing job easier when they needed 65 from eight overs in the opening game; in the second, they hammered 98 off the last eight.
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With Kohli and Pant not available for the third game, India can now pick Shreyas and Gaikwad and even try Deepak Hooda in place of Venkatesh. How they change their bowling attack with the series in the bag remains to be seen. They have Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Yadav as options.
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Ishan Kishan (wk), 6 Venkatesh Iyer/Deepak Hooda, 7 Harshal Patel, 8 Deepak Chahar/Shardul Thakur, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Mohammed Siraj/Avesh Khan, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav
West Indies came close on Friday night and don’t really need a change to their XI unless they want to try out players they haven’t so far, like Dominic Drakes and Hayden Walsh.
West Indies (probable): 1 Kyle Mayers, 2 Brandon King, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Kieron Pollard (capt), 6 Jason Holder, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Odean Smith, 10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Sheldon Cottrell
Pitch and conditions
Evenings in Kolkata will continue to be pleasant with dew expected later on, which means the team winning the toss will likely chase again.
Stats and trivia
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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