FORT LAUDERDALE,United States: West Indies face India in two Twenty20 internationals in Florida at the weekend in a litmus test for both cricket\u00b4s future in the US and Carlos Brathwaite\u00b4s credentials as Caribbean skipper.
\nAfter India cruised to victory in the Test series and in the aftermath of the Caribbean squad\u00b4s latest round of blood-letting, the sides head for the sport\u00b4s newest outpost, the Central Broward Regional Park, the only purpose-built ricket stadium in the US.
\nSix matches in the recent franchise-based Caribbean Premier League were played at the $10 million arena while the first full international matches, two Twenty20 games between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, were staged there in 2010.
\nSaturday and Sunday\u00b4s back-to-back fixtures come at a crucial time for the West Indies.
\nThey may be the reigning world champions in the format having triumphed in India earlier this year, but that didn\u00b4t save Darren Sammy\u00b4s job as skipper.
\nHe 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\u00b4s World T20 final in Mumbai.
\n“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,” said Brathwaite.
\n“I don\u00b4t think it\u00b4s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos.”
\nHis first job will be to introduce stability into the engaging but often frustrating nature of West Indies\u00b4 short-form cricket — before they won their second World T20 in four years, they lost to Afghanistan in the qualifying round.
\nDespite his heroics in Mumbai, 28-year-old Brathwaite is a lightweight when it comes to international experience, having played just three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight Twenty 20s.
\nIn contrast, the team\u00b4s 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.
\nThey have enjoyed a solid run in T20 series in recent times, winning in Australia, Sri Lanka and claiming the Asia Cup before recovering to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in June.
\nTwelve of the 14-man Test squad will be in Florida with skipper Virat Kohli handing over leadership duties to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
\nThey will have revenge on their minds having lost to the West Indies in the semi-finals of this year\u00b4s World Twenty20.
\nA crowd of 15,000 is expected in Florida over each of the two days including vast numbers of expatriates.
\n“India is a like the rock star of cricket,” Rizwan Mohammed told the Sun Sentinel newspaper whose reporter went to great lengths to demystify the sport for his American readership.
\n“Instead of four bases there are two wickets bracketing a rectangular 22-yard-long dirt pitch at the centre of an oval ground,” wrote the paper\u00b4s correspondent
\n“The 11 fielders have various ways of getting the batter out, including striking the wicket behind the batsman with a bowled ball or catching a batted ball on the fly.”
\nWest 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
\nIndia 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FORT LAUDERDALE,United States: West Indies face India in two Twenty20 internationals in Florida at the weekend in a litmus test for both cricket\u00b4s future in the US and Carlos Brathwaite\u00b4s credentials as Caribbean skipper. After India cruised to victory in the Test series and in the aftermath of the Caribbean squad\u00b4s latest round of blood-letting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n