Cuttack : India skipper Virat Kohli, who has scored only 34 runs in the four matches across formats at the Barabati Stadium, had an intense training session ahead of the series-deciding third ODI against West Indies here tomorrow.
In an optional net session, Kohli batted for a significant time, going for aerial as well as ground strokes. Fastest to 10,000 ODI runs, Kohli comes to the series-decider in Cuttack with scores of 4 and 0 in Chennai and Visakhapatnam.
At the Barabati Stadium, the star player totals 34 runs — 3, 22, 1, 8 — from three ODIs and one T20I, his lowest among all the venues in India where he has played at least three matches.
Kohli, who skipped the last match here, a T20I against Sri Lanka in December 2017, was the first to pad up as he batted close to half-an-hour before taking the throwdowns. The Indian players also seemed pretty concerned about the heavy dew in the evening as they trained with wet balls under the watchful eyes of fielding coach R Sridhar.
Shreyas Iyer said, “He literally made it wet while we took catches. We are prepared whatever the circumstances may be, we are ready for it.” In his assessment of the wicket, Iyer said: “I think it’s going to be really fast in the second innings and the dew factor plays a massive role. We have played here before, against Sri Lanka, and in the evening, there was dew in the outfield, it’s really too much.”
Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini is in line to make his ODI debut in the absence of the injured Deepak Chahar, who was ruled out with a lower-back problem.
Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav needs one wicket to reach the 100-wicket milestone in ODI cricket. The 24-year-old will become the 22nd Indian to claim 100 ODI wickets. Yadav, who has taken 99 wickets in 54 ODIs, will also become the joint-fastest Indian to claim 100 wickets in the 50-overs format. Currently, the record is being held by pacer Mohammed Shami, who reached the milestone in his 55th ODI. (Agencies)
