If New Zealand's Trent Boult and Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi were not enough to throw light on India's struggles against dealing with top-quality left-arm pace bowling, England's Reece Topley and very recently West Indies' Obed McCoy took it to another level. India won both the ODI and t20I series in England but Topley visibly created some troubles for the Indian top-order. The same issue was once again highlighted when McCoy ran through India's batting unit in the second T20I at Saint Kitts by registering the best bowling figures by a West Indies cricketer in T20Is. India captain Rohit Sharma, who himself was dismissed for a golden duck in by McCoy in the first ball of the match, however, sees no problem in India's handing of left-arm seamers.
"I don't know about that (if India has a weakness against left-arm pace). As a team we want to improve in all aspects of the game, but in the last few series, the left-arm seamers have done well against us. I don't see that as a concern. It's not that the guys are struggling, it happens when you're trying to score quickly. But we do need to understand when we come up against certain bowlers, we just want to come out and express ourselves, that's what we want to continue doing," Rohit said at the toss of the third T20I.
On Tuesday, however, there were no signs of any weakness from the Indian top-order as they romped to a seven-wicket victory thanks to a blistering 76-run knock by Suryakumar Yadav.
{{/usCountry}}On Tuesday, however, there were no signs of any weakness from the Indian top-order as they romped to a seven-wicket victory thanks to a blistering 76-run knock by Suryakumar Yadav.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav struck eight fours and four sixes in his 44-ball knock, while wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant scored an unbeaten 33 as India chased down a target of 165 with one over to spare.
Put in to bat first, West Indies ended their innings on 164/5 after opener Kyle Mayers struck 73 off 50 balls and Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer chipped in with some quick runs at the end of the innings.
India pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 2-35, while all-rounder Hardik Pandya and seamer Arshdeep Singh also bagged one wicket each.
India won the series opener by 68 runs, while West Indies won the second match by five wickets.