West Indies face India in two Twenty20 internationals in Florida at the weekend in a litmus test for both cricket’s future in the US and Carlos Brathwaite’s credentials as Caribbean captain.
After India cruised to victory in the Test series and in the aftermath of the West Indies squad’s latest round of bloodletting, the sides head for the sport’s newest outpost, the Central Broward Regional Park, the only purpose-built cricket stadium in the US.
Six matches in the recent franchise-based Caribbean Premier League were played at the $10 million (Dh36.73m) arena while the first full international matches, two Twenty20 games between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, were staged there in 2010.
Saturday and Sunday’s back-to-back fixtures come at a crucial time for the West Indies.
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They may be the reigning world champions in the format having triumphed in India earlier this year, but that didn’t save Darren Sammy’s job as captain.
He was sacked in what he claimed was a “30 second phone call” and replaced by Brathwaite who etched his name into West Indies cricket folklore by smashing four sixes in the final over against England to win this year’s World T20 final in Mumbai.
“I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be,” Brathwaite said.
“I don’t think it’s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos.”
His first job will be to introduce stability into the engaging but often frustrating nature of West Indies’ short-form cricket. Before they won their second World T20 in four years, they lost to Afghanistan in the qualifying round.
Despite his heroics in Mumbai, Brathwaite, 28, is a lightweight when it comes to international experience, having played just three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight T20s.
In contrast, the team’s superstar Chris Gayle has 103 Tests, 269 ODIs and 50 T20s to his name as well as a host of batting records.
India, meanwhile, have no worries over their confidence levels heading into the weekend.
They have enjoyed plenty of T20 success in recent times, winning in Australia, Sri Lanka and claiming the Asia Cup before recovering to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in June.
Of the 14-man Test squad, 12 players will be in Florida, with captain Virat Kohli handing over leadership duties to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
They will have revenge on their minds having lost to the West Indies in the semi-finals of this year’s World Twenty20.
A crowd of 15,000 is expected in Florida over each of the two days including vast numbers of expatriates.
SQUADS
West Indies squad: Carlos Brathwaite (capt), Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine
India squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli
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