Bangalore: Yuvraj Singh-led India ‘A' will be feeling the heat and pressure ahead of Saturday's one-off T20 game here against West Indies ‘A' after losing the One-day series 1-2 despite having a clutch of experienced international players in its ranks.
The Indians, after winning the opening game by 77 runs, suffered back-to-back defeats in the remaining two matches that the Windies, captained ably by Kieran Powell, clinched with a measure of comfort.
In both the defeats, the Indian batsmen faltered while chasing while their bowling and fielding remained largely unimpressive, allowing the Windies to put up totals of 279 and 312.
Under the circumstances, Powell's Caribbean outfit will be high on confidence for Saturday's T20 bash while it remains to be seen how well the Indians would have recovered from the series loss.
The T20 format puts premium on starts and partnerships, besides disciplined bowling and aggressive fielding. The Indians were found wanting in all these departments during the three one-dayers and it left Yuvraj hoping that his team would be able to lift its game by not repeating the mistakes in the T20 match.
In contrast, the Windies players showed greater commitment and a special ability to rise to the occasion when the chips were down as was in evidence in their fight back in the one-day series.
Also, having spent a week here and played three matches, the visitors would have acclimatized to the conditions and with their morale high after the series win, the Windies team presents a far different picture than when it arrived in India earlier this month.
Powell spoke about executing well the carefully laid plans to beat the Indians and more of the same is to be expected in the T20 game on the morrow when the home team will be looking up to the likes of Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan to deliver.
Teams (from):
West Indies ‘A': Kieran Powell (captain), Andre Fletcher, Kirk Edwards, Jonathan Carter, Leon Johnson, Devon Thomas, Andre Russell, Nikita Miller, Ashley Nurse, Veerasammy Permaul, Miguel Cummins, Sheldon Cottrell, Ronsford Beaton, Narsing Deonaraine, Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite and Chadwick Walton.
India ‘A': Yuvraj Singh (Captain), Unmukt Chand, Robin Uthappa, Baba Aparajith, Kedar Jadhav, Naman Ojha (Wicketkeeper), Yusuf Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Siddarth Kaul, Sumit Narwal, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mandeep Singh and Rahul Sharma.
