India aim to seal West Indies series in style in Jamaica
TASK CUT OUT Spinner R Ashwin could come back into the 11 at the expense of Jadeja in the fifth and final ODI today
a contrast. While the first one won him the Man-of-the-Match award, the second knock got him brickbats.
In the first, he carefully built his innings before unleashing shots to help India finish at a challenging total. In the second, however, he couldn’t take off and remained in his shell.
His failure revealed the weakness of India’s middle-order and how much it revolves around him.
Skipper Virat Kohli has said both Pandya and Kedar Jadhav need some more game time to learn to hold the middle order together and be effective.
In the past two ODIs, the top order, barring Ajinkya Rahane, failed, exposing the middle-order early.
Coach Sanjay Bangar refused to read too much into the loss saying it was a poor wicket in the last match that caused the problems while India chased.
After being asked to sit out for the last match, off-spinner R Ashwin looks likely to make a return, most likely at the expense of Ravindra Jadeja, who failed to pick a wicket and couldn’t get India over the line with the bat. Ashwin had picked three wickets in the third ODI, so it raised a few eyebrows when he was rested for Jadeja.
India’s record at Sabina Park is particularly bad. They’ve lost almost three-fourths of the ODIs they’ve played here. West Indies have a great record, including against India, who they’ve beaten four out of six times.