Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep of Australia Down Under, a confident India would seek to continue their winning momentum when they take on a depleted and new-look Sri Lanka in the first of three T20 Internationals here tomorrow.
After the comprehensive series triumph in Australia, these three matches would certainly act as the springboard for the hosts to begin their preparations for the Asia Cup T20 Championship which is beginning in Bangladesh later this month and the World T20 in March-April in India.
India will also look to win the T20 series to retain their number one position in the ICC T20I Championship table, which they achieved after sweeping aside Australia last week.
The hosts will definitely miss their Test captain Virat Kohli who was in glorious form in the T20 series in Australia, as well as in the preceding ODI series Down Under which India lost 1-4.
Even in the absence of a top shot like Kohli, who has been rested by the selectors before the more important Asia Cup and the World T20 events, the home team's batting strength looks pretty formidable for the new-look attack of Sri Lanka, the defending World T20 Champions.
In Rohit Sharma, who was also in top form in Australia, and Shikhar Dhawan - who took time to get going Down Under, the home team has a set of right-left openers who have repeatedly given the side great starts and they could be a handful for the largely inexperienced Lanka bowling attack on the Indian batting tracks.
The riches are evident in the rest of the batting order with the likes of Suresh Raina, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the recalled Yuvraj Singh, present along with the fit-again Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey who played a match-winning knock in the final ODI in Australia but did not figure in the subsequent T20s.
In fact, Pandey would be very eager to stamp his class in the T20 format too ahead of the Asia Cup and World T20 events for which he has not found a place in the squad.
In bowling too, the same attack that figured in the series in Australia, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is not part of the Asia Cup or World T20 squad, would be seen although he may not be among the first choice for seam-up stuff in the presence of Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah, who had impressed with his unorthodox action and extra pace in Australia.
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This change-over in the playing eleven will not hurt the balance much, particularly in terms of batting, as Jadeja is a better lower-order batsman than Mishra.
Moreover, as a spinner who looks to make the batsmen play at all times, he can play great foil to both pacers looking to stop runs, or bowl in tandem with Ashwin.
There is also a remote chance that the team management might go in with three spinners, leaving out Yadav and bringing in Jadeja, considering the dryness of the pitch and the small matter of the ball going soft in the previous Test in somewhat similar conditions.
However, rain showers frequent St.Lucia at this time of the year, and it turns cloudy quite quickly here. Even the forecast during the Test is of cloudy conditions and rain on atleast two days.
While the Indian team management showed amply in Jamaica that they do not take tropical storms into consideration for their strategic decisions, let alone weather forecasts, yet prevalent conditions here could still sway them from dropping the third seamer.
While there could be different permutations and combinations as regards to the bowling attack, India's batting line-up looks set once again.
Perhaps the only matter worth pondering over is about the fitness of Murali Vijay. And while the Tamil Nadu opener is slowly regaining full fitness, he didn't bat against the pacers in the nets on Sunday.
He faced slow throw-downs and batted against the spinners mostly, that too in tandem with Cheteshwar Pujara. That left KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan to work on their pairing as Ishant and Mohammed Shami used new balls in the nets against the opening duo.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of Vijay's unavailability was the fact that he was absent from slip catching, whilst Dhawan, Kohli and Rahul worked with the fielding coach Abhay Sharma.
In parallel, there is no indecisiveness on the part of the hosts West Indies as regards their opening combination. Shai Hope is expected to make his Test comeback, after the selectors left out Rajendra Chandrika.
The former had scored an unbeaten hundred against the visitors in their first tour game in St.Kitts, and skipper Jason Holder will want him to replicate the same here.
England will sorely miss their pace spearhead Anderson
who is expected to join the squad here having recovered more or less from his shoulder injury but will not be in the playing eleven.
The visitors, however, have a top class fast bowling attack led by Stuart Broad and will have the tall Steven Finn, Chris Woakes and all-rounder Ben Stokes to fall back on depending on the combination they choose to field in the playing eleven.
Moeen Ali, who started as a batsman and can bowl off spin, has now become the side's frontline spinner and will have left-armer Zafar Ansari and leggie Adil Rashid as his partners in crime although off-spinner Gareth Batty is another option.
However, more than anything else, it would be a battle of attrition between the two sides and India would be expected to hold their own better in home conditions.
The teams (from):
India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice Captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav.
England: Alastair Cook (Captain), Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Gareth Batty, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Ben Duckett, Steven Finn, Haseeb Hameed, Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.
Match starts: 09:30 am IST.
