After bagging the T20I series, a confident Indian team will lock horns with West Indies in the first ODI in Chennai. However, the weather might not be as supportive as Chennai tends to get rains in the month of December and it is no different his time as well. India cancelled their training session on Friday and West Indies did the same on Saturday and the forecast even on the day of the match is not entirely promising.
It rained on Friday and Saturday and this forced the groundstaff to cover the pitch right through. As per Accuweather, there will be a cloud cover right throughout the game along with intermittent showers. This could well mean a stop-start game, something which is infuriating for both the players as well as the fans.
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The square is also relaid and this could men a sluggish surface could be on offer and with no sunshine in the city, the Indian spinners would not mind bowling on the surface. “The number of bowlers does well, I think it augurs well for us. So it gives you a varied pool of bowlers to choose from. Also, we would be seeing the conditions, New Zealand would be different, Australia would be different. So it will be horses for courses..,” bowling coach Bharat Arun said ahead of the match.
Owing to the surface India could go in with three spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as the West Indies batting has struggled to hit their stride against wrist spin. Also, there will be pressure on Rishabh Pant to come good. He has got a long rope and the management continues to back him.
{{/usCountry}}Owing to the surface India could go in with three spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as the West Indies batting has struggled to hit their stride against wrist spin. Also, there will be pressure on Rishabh Pant to come good. He has got a long rope and the management continues to back him.
{{/usCountry}}“He has been backed by the selectors and the team management because all of us believe that he is a good player... He is working hard on his game and hid fitness, so we are just hoping that he comes good. All of us believe that once he comes good, he can be a match-winner. He is being given opportunities because he has done well in the past. Once he starts getting runs, I am sure, he will be a massive player,” batting coach Vikram Rathour said on the eve of the 1st ODI.