Ready for clean sweep, India look to partially heal wounds of T20 WC

Captain Rohit Sharma will not waver from his ruthless approach but might try out a few of his reserve players as India aim for a clean sweep against New Zealand in the third and final T20 International in Eden Gardens on Sunday.

Bilateral T20I series in various parts of the globe is fast losing its context due to too many private leagues but for Indian team, after their World Cup disaster, a series win might help in partially healing the wounds.

For New Zealand, it’s more about completing the assignment after a punishing schedule that will see them play five games (since T20 WC semifinal) in less than two weeks.

Having already pocketed the series with a couple of near perfect chases on Jaipur and Ranchi belters, there couldn’t have been a better venue than Eden Gardens for skipper Rohit to end the series on perfect note and also try out some of his reserve bench players.

Giving Venkatesh Iyer a go with the ball with the evening breeze from River Hooghly aiding a bit of movement won’t be a bad idea but it depends whether Rohit wants a sixth bowler.

Hence the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Avesh Khan and Ishan Kishan will expect that their skipper consider them for a game in this series. For New Zealand, the real struggle had been between overs 15 to 20 when their batters haven’t been able to accelerate.Eden is expected to be a batting beauty and in November, dew is undoubtedly going to make it easy for any team batting second.