India vs West Indies first T20I in Trinidad will be historic as the India team will play their 200th T20I after playing their first match against South Africa in December 2006. Hardik Pandya will lead a young team and hopes to kick off the T20 series of Five games on a positive note. Without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the young team led by Pandya will try to play cricket fearlessly.
Under Hardik Pandya, India is yet to lose a T20 series, and against the West Indies, the all-rounder would try to maintain that record. The T20 squad sees players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh. With the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played next year in June, the West Indies series will be an ideal preparation for the players.
Hardik Pandya led the young India squad aim to deliver first punch at 200th T20I
Hardik Pandya has led India in 11 T20Is and India has won 8 of them. This will be the second foreigner from Pandya as captain in T20I. The first was against New Zealand, with the all-rounder drawing the two-game T20 series 1-1. Against the West Indies, the Pandya junior will have a good chance of winning the series. However, the task will not be any easier as India is in a transition phase in T20I.
With no senior players like Rohit, Kohli, KL Rahul, and Bumrah, the young players will have a huge task in hand to stand up and deliver performances of note. Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel have placed bets on Jaiswal, Varma, Mukesh Kumar, and Arshdeep Singh. Only Arshdeep has played T20I, while the rest of the three players have yet to make their India debut in the shortest format of the game.
Mukesh and Jaiswal are coming off a good Test and ODI series against Windies. Jaiswal only featured in Test and had a terrific start to his career. Varma has been chosen for the T20I team on the back of his splendid performance in IPL 2023 for MI. The southpaw scored 343 runs in 11 games at a strike rate of 164.
