IND vs WI 2026/27, IND vs WI 3rd T20I Match Preview

Big picture – Who’ll want to be a bowler?

Just when you think it can’t get worse for the West Indies and India bowlers, their next venue is Indore. After 501 runs were scored in Ranchi in 38.3 overs – 352 of them in boundaries – these two beleaguered bowling units get only one day to recover before they are put to the sword in the most notorious of batting paradises.

There hasn’t been any T20 cricket in Indore for two years, but the last three ODIs have had scores of 399, 385 and 337. In the last completed IPL match there, eight years ago, 245 played 214. India have also scored 260 at the venue against Sri Lanka in 2017, in an era when they weren’t even as serious about T20 cricket.

Indore usually turns out to be a true surface and has notoriously small boundaries, as most grounds in the middle of Indian cities tend to do. That few T20 records have occurred there just seems to be more happenstance, a lack of familiarity, than design. Another statistical oddity is that on this tour so far, all five matches – three ODIs and two T20Is – have been won by chasing sides.

However in Indore, 200-plus scores have been successfully defended in all the four matches that mark was breached. There have also been only two successful chases in eight ODIs there. The MO of the winning sides, in all instances, has been burying the opposition under a mountain of runs. On one occasion, Indore hosted Virender Sehwag’s double-century all the way back in 2011, as India scored 418 batting first.

Now I know what you’re thinking, punk. Does it grip more in the night even though science says it shouldn’t? We need to keep in mind these are sides that have chased down 405 and 351 in just this recent ODI series, then 249 in the previous T20I. So, you’ve got to ask yourself a question. “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

Form guide

India LWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
West Indies WLWLW

In the spotlight – Kuldeep Yadav and Sherfane Rutherford

In Ranchi, Kuldeep Yadav was the only one to take a wicket for India outside the powerplay, but as the duration of matches has gone down on this tour, his effectiveness has been on the wane. His four overs went for 53 runs and yielded only Sherfane Rutherford‘s wicket, but not before Rutherford had taken him down for two sixes in 10 balls. This will remain the key middle-overs battle if West Indies lose Shimron Hetmyer early again.

Team news: India won’t change much

Since dew was a major factor in India’s defeat in the previous T20I, it is hard to expect them to question their policy of playing only three specialist bowlers. Yes, Axar Patel has had a surprisingly great year so far, especially with the new ball, but the last match was a perfect example of why you can’t pencil in Axar, or any fingerspinner, for four overs every match. India, though, could look at introducing a right-hand batter in Nitish Kumar Reddy at the expense of Shivam Dube, who had an ordinary night with both bat and ball in Ranchi.

India (probable XI): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy/Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mayank Yadav, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

After the win in Ranchi, West Indies might want to go in with the same XI. As things stand, they do not have too many other bowling options in their squad anyway.

West Indies (probable XI): 1 Shai Hope (capt. & wk), 2 Kamil Pooran, 3 Shimron Hetmyer, 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Romario Shepherd, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Shamar Springer, 9 Akeal Hosein, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Gudakesh Motie.

Pitch and conditions

Rohit Sharma, Hashim Amla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shreyas Iyer and Rilee Rossouw are the disparate players to have scored T20 centuries in Indore. Virender Sehewag scored his ODI double-hundred here. The weather for Sunday says that Indore will have a high of 34 and a low of 17 degrees Celsius, which could be ideal conditions for dew formation.

Stats and trivia

West Indies have won three T20Is against India in India, all three of them while chasing – one in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final, and now, one while completing the highest-successful chase against India.
The 501 runs scored in the second T20I in Ranchi is the second-highest match aggregate in T20Is, behind South Africa vs West Indies in Centurion three years ago. West Indies failed to defend 258 there.
If you take out the four overs Roston Chase bowled for just 24 runs, India scored at 14.06 for the rest of their innings, only marginally better than West Indies’ 13.62, who didn’t let any single bowler stand out, with economy rates ranging from 11.25 to 18.

Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at Cricinfo

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