Kolkata has a habit of stirring nostalgia and deja vu, and giving the internet-savvy an excuse to #throwback. Wouldn’t Daren Sammy and West Indies like to carry that thought into the cauldron of Eden Gardens? Sammy has returned to the land of one of his biggest conquests – a T20 World Cup title victory from 2016, as the wise sage of West Indies cricket, pulling strings from behind while narrating tales of glory from the past.
Sammy has always been a headline-chaser’s dream. In a room full of journalists on Saturday, he put on a show. “It’s going to feel like a David vs Goliath game. But then again, in 2016, David defeated Goliath, so that’s what I am going to tell my boys tomorrow.”
It’s a smart narrative to go with as a coach looking to get his players fired up for their biggest game of the World Cup. But as the last 20-odd days have shown, the quality chasm between the two teams isn’t as deep as Sammy would have you believe.
For starters, they’re the two best six-hitting teams of the tournament (West Indies: 66, India: 63), who were made to look out of their depth only by South Africa. Their batters have exploitable pain points – India have struggled against pace-off deliveries and West Indies have buckled against short balls – but they’ve also shown themselves to be responsible for victories. India might want to believe there’s more match-winning depth in their bowling but an upbeat Sammy and his West Indies will not concur.
Sunday evening’s face-off is a fight to protect both reputations and expectations. West Indies cricket may weather crises and lose bona fide stars to retirement and the lure of franchise leagues, but on the field, they will always be seen as capable of bending this format to their will.
India meanwhile, are lugging along the invisible weight of expectations with the triple burden of being defending champions, the best team of the last two years, and hosts. They rekindled a version close to their best in Chennai, but that would count for nothing if their sojourn doesn’t take them from Kolkata to Ahmedabad via Mumbai.
A dry pitch? That was Daren Sammy’s first assessment of it. There’s also a bit of green left on it on the eve of the big fixture. This is also the first 7 PM start of the World Cup at this venue so average scores so far will not paint an accurate picture of what to expect. The city experienced rains last week, but the coast should be clear on Sunday.
Rinku Singh is expected to be back with the team late Saturday evening after being at his father’s funeral, but might not be rushed back into the XI. India should stick with the same combination they used in Chennai against Zimbabwe.
Against a team that has lost 19 wickets to finger spin, the most among Super Eights teams, West Indies could be tempted to pick all three of Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein, who sat out the fixture against South Africa for tactical reasons.
“All my soldiers are fit and ready to go” was Sammy’s response to queries on Brandon King’s fitness and availability.
India Probable XI: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh
West Indies Probable XI: Brandon King, Shai Hope (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Matthew Forde/Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie, Shamar Joseph
[Cricbuzz]
