India's Recent Form Makes It The Overwhelming Favourite

Men in Blue have won all six T20Is against West Indies in the last 13 months; visiting skipper Pollard, however, happy to put his faith in an unproven unit

- Shreedutta Chidananda

India and the West Indies have faced each other in six T20 Internationals over the last 13 months. From Lauderhill to Lucknow, these fixtures have produced the same result every single time — an Indian win.

So the ordinary fan might be forgiven any lack of enthusiasm when the two teams meet again this month, for a three-match T20I series that begins at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.

The West Indians have not arrived in the best of shape. Theirs is a relatively inexperienced outfit, fresh offa T20I series defeat to Afghanistan. A number of star names are absent, either through injury or other reasons.

Andre Russell has had his knee issues but was fit enough to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 league; Chris Gayle's future is unclear, and Sunil Narine has hurt his finger.

A return to international cricket for Dwayne Bravo, who last played for the West Indies in 2016, has been spoken of but there has been no comeback yet.

The limited-overs captaincy has now been handed to Kieron Pollard, who dashed off to Abu Dhabi himself after the Afghanistan T20s last month.

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