KHURRAM HABIB

Following three days of bright sunshine and sweltering heat, it rained on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, leaving the third ODI between India and West Indies to the mercy of the weather.

Thankfully, unlike the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, this ground has good drainage facilities, easily among the best in the world. If the curator is to be believed, it’ll take only half an hour to drain the water left by two-inch rain.

The Indians trained on Wednesday with the top three getting a long stint at the nets. The Indian batting unit looks settled and as opener Shikhar Dhawan says there are team goals and that is primarily to outbat the opposition.

“Once we go out to bat, there are team goals, like say in 30 overs we shouldn’t be losing that many wickets or we have to achieve these many runs. That’s always on the back of my mind. I try to be in the moment and play it ballby-ball,” he says.

Due to this approach, the Indian team has been racking up scores of beyond 300, and in this series against a weak and depleted West Indies side. Even something a bit less could prove more than enough in this series.

The home batsmen have looked inept, primarily against India’s new ball bowlers. Windies coach Stuart Law pointed out the other day that his charges are inexperienced and they are looking to learn from this series. Asked if the boys, with really poor batting averages, worry him, he had they are trying hard to put up a competition.

The West Indies batsmen’s failure recently against Afghanistan leg spinner Rashid Khan has prompted Kohli and the team think tank to play a wrist spinner in chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who picked three wickets