After whitewashing West Indies in the Test series, India’s Caribbean sojourn will now move to the US. Lauderhill, Florida will be host to the two match T20 series. US previously hosted the Masters Champions Leauge last year. The success of the tournament resulted in the two cricket boards to agree to organize the T20 series in US.

New look squads set for T20 showdown

West Indies

The T20 series will bring a vast change in the look of the two teams, especially West Indies. Big names like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine have been included in the team. They will be led by Carlos Braithwaite who helped West Indies to win the T20 title this year. He will have a lot of experience to bank on from the likes of his returning players. After all, they are T20 specialists for the team and well travelled T20 cricketers. “I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be, I don’t think it’s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos”, Carlos Braithwaite was quoted as saying by the West India media.

Quite opposed to the Test team, the T20 team is more likely to pose a threat to India, who will be itching to win the T20 series as well. A win here will also (somewhat) avenge their World T20 semi-final defeat at Wankhede earlier this year.

India

Indian team too will witness the return of MS Dhoni, after a long break and good rest. Dhoni will lead the proceedings for India as he now gets into the business of playing cricket again. Remainder of the core of the team has been maintained for the T20’s. The likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and the two spinners in Ravi Chandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have all been included in the side.

Meanwhile India coach Anil Kumble was “very impressed” with the ground conditions for the T20 series. “I certainly didn’t expect the facilities to be as good as what it is in the United States. I had heard about Florida and this ground, but very impressed with the facilities that we have seen today. It’s the first time that I’m seeing this ground and the wickets are good, ideal probably for a T20, and the practice facilities have been good, the outfield looks fantastic. So all in all, really impressed with the facilities here” Cricinfo quoted Kumble saying.

Carnivalesque promotion for Cricket in USA

A crowd of 15,000 is expected in Florida over each of the two days including vast numbers of expatriates.

As it has always been with the West Indies T20 side, they carry a lot of energy and excitement into a series. The same is expected when both the heavyweights meet for a carnivalesque  T20 series in the US. This is understandably an initiative from both the boards to promote the sport on a global platform. And, what better way to do that, than the two best T20 cricketing nations pitted against each other. It will be fun, frolly, entertainment and also serious cricket that the US audience will be a witness to.

Squads

India: MS Dhoni (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli

West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (c), Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine