Team India have to sort out top-order batting woes
Indore: West Indies on Wednesday suffered a big blow ahead of their fourth one-day international against India here on Thursday as key batsman Darren Bravo was ruled out of the crucial match because of left hamstring injury.
“Darren Bravo is out for next game. Like we showed when Shiv (Shivnarine Chanderpaul) missed a Test (third and last Test in Mumbai which ended in a thrilling draw), young (Kieron) Powell came in and took responsibility,” West Indies skipper Darren Sammy said at the customary match-eve media conference at the Holkar Stadium today.
Sammy conceded the team will miss the classy left-handed batsman, who hurt his hamstring in third ODI at Ahmedabad, but said it would give an opportunity for someone else to step up and take charge.
Meanwhile, India will have to sort out their top-order batting woes to make it 3-1.
Windies had competed well against the stronger and more fancied hosts in the first two matches that they lost at Cuttack and Vishakapatnam, but the victory in the must-win Ahmedabad match has lifted their sagging spirits on the tour where very little has gone right for them.
The much-vaunted Indian batting line-up would certainly be wary of the dangers posed by the varied Windies attack after the way they folded up in the Motera Stadium.
Rohit Sharma played a lone dominant hand among the front-line batsmen and has been the bulwark of this batting order.
The biggest flops have been the Delhi duo of Virender Sehwag, who is leading the squad in the absence of Dhoni, and Gautam Gambhir, performing well below par in the three games.Both were dismissed shockingly for first-ball ducks by West Indies’ pacer Ravi Rampaul who has made a big impact with both the bat and the ball in the rubber. (PTI)
