THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, CMC – West Indies will be gunning for a series-levelling victory when they clash with a rejuvenated India in today’s final One-Day International of the five-match series here.
The Caribbean side have exceeded expectations so far in the series which India leads 2-1, and assistant coach Nic Pothas believes squaring the series will come down to the mental strength and execution.
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s pivotal final match at Greenfield International Stadium, Pothas praised the Windies efforts in the series that have seen them surprisingly push India but said it was now important the visitors produced the complete game.
“It’s fast becoming mental now rather than physical. The players are in a very good space so we’re very hopeful about tomorrow and very positive about tomorrow,” Pothas told a media conference here.
“It’s a very young team, not just from an international point of view but from a volume of 50-over cricket point of view. I think like anything when you play a game at this level, whatever sport it might be, it’s always going to come down to execution over a long period of time.
“And we’ve seen that we can execute for short periods of time, the challenge is always going to be to execute for a hundred overs.”
Written off before the series, West Indies have been surprising competitive. They went down by eight wickets in the opener in Guwahati but not before posting 322, and then chased down 321 in Visakhapatnam to earn a tie.
Even more shockingly, the world number nine side then successfully defended 283 in the third match in Pune to earn a 43-run victory.
The wheels fell off on Monday when they crashed to a record 224-run defeat in Mumbai but Pothas said this was an example of the need to produce sustained performances.
“We probably didn’t execute on our plans as well as we had in the previous game but that’s the nature of playing against a very, very strong team,” Pothas explained.
“Credit to India for bouncing back really strong after the game before that [in Pune]. That’s exactly what you’d expect from a world-leading team.”
He added: “If you want to beat India or England, Australia, Pakistan, you’ve got to execute for a hundred overs and that takes physical ability, it takes skill ability, it takes mental ability and fitness certainly comes into it.”
He added: “We have Bangladesh next, we have a little break and then we play England in the Caribbean so we have a lot of cricket coming up. Physical fitness is always going to aid your recovery, it’s going to aid your decision-making and it’s going to aid your execution.”
West Indies management will be delighted with the form of young stroke-makers Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer who have both struck hundreds en route to aggregates of 250 runs each.
And with both on their first maiden tour of India, Pothas said the learning curve for the inexperienced players had been encouraging.
“Our young guys are learning all the time. They’re having to learn at the international level which is never easy but they’re getting better all the time and most importantly they’re open to that learning so we’re positive about it.”
The day/night encounter bowls off at 1:30 pm (4 am Eastern Caribbean time).
SQUADS:
INDIA -Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Jasprit Bumrah, Lokesh Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rishabh Pant, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey.
WEST INDIES – Jason Holder (captain), Chandrapaul Hemraj, Kieran Powell, Shai Hope, Marlon Samuels, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Fabian Allen, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach, Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Obed McCoy, Oshane Thomas.
