India vs West Indies – 1st T20I Match Prediction

The West Indies recently played in a three-match ODI series against India and ended up losing 3-0. Their tour of India is now set to continue with some T20 cricket as they are set to play three T20I matches. Will the West Indies be able to stop the rot and finally get themselves a win, or will India make it four wins on the spin?

Take a look at our prediction of who will win this match today and all will be revealed.

India Team Preview

Rohit Sharma will captain the India cricket team in this series after having taken the captaincy mantle from Virat Kohli. He led India to a whitewash over the West Indies in the ODI series, and he will be hoping for a similar outcome this time around too.

Axar Patel and KL Rahul were both due to be in the squad for this series, but they have both had to withdraw due to injury and they have been replaced by Deepal Hooda and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The latter finished the 2021 IPL as the top scorer, so it is quite surprising that he was not in the squad to begin with. Now that he is, if he makes it into the playing XI, he will do his utmost to ensure that he becomes non-droppable.

We think that Sharma and Kohli will open the batting, while Ishan Kishan will come in at the fall of the first wicket. Kishan will be raring to go and eager to put on some big scores in this series as he recently sold for 15.25 crore at the 2022 IPL auction. As the most expensive player from the auction, he will be eager to show the Mumbai Indians that they did not waste any money on him.

As to who will make up the rest of the batting line-up, we think it will be Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shreyas Iyer. If you are considering doing some online cricket betting on a player to be India's top batsman, then we recommend you put your money on Sharma. He was in pretty decent form in the ODI series, and we think he will cause some serious damage at the top of the order in this first match.

What about their bowling attack? Well, we believe that it will be made up of Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, and Deepak Chahar. If you are going to bet on the top bowler for India on your favourite cricket betting sites, then we would suggest that you put your money on Chahal. He has picked up 64 wickets in this format from the 50 matches that he has played in.

West Indies Team Preview

The West Indies enter this T20I series with a 3-2 win against England under their belts. England were the number one ranked T20I team, but it must be said that England were missing a number of key players at the time due to the fact that some of their best T20I players had just finished losing 4-0 to Australia in the Ashes. However, despite this fact, the West Indies will still enter this series with some extra confidence under their belts.

Kieron Pollard and his men were ranked as the worst T20I team in the world when they took on England, but that really is not a fair reflection of the quality that they possess. They possess powerful batsmen who all have the power to hit the ball miles, and they showed against England that they bat pretty deep too. If the Indian bowlers are off their line even a little bit, then those in the crowd should put on some hard hats because it will be raining sixes when the West Indies are batting.

We feel that Brandon King and Kyle Mayers will open the batting, while Romario Shepherd will come in t the fall of the first wicket. The rest of the batting line-up will be made up of Nicholas Pooran, Pollard, Rovman Powell, and Jason Holder. If you want to make a cricket match prediction for the top scorer for the West Indies, then we would suggest you put your money on Powell. If you watched the series against England, then you will know just how destructive he can be with the bat.

We think that the bowling attack will be made up of Fabian Allen, Odean Smith, Sheldon Cottrell, Akeal Hosein, and Holder. If you want to put money on the bowler that you think will go ahead and collect the most wickets for the West Indies, then we would suggest you go for Hosein as he picked up wickets in all of the games against England. If you do not want to go for Hosein, then maybe you should think about betting on Holder as not only can he get wickets regularly, but he is also very economical.

Toss Prediction

The captain that wins the toss will most likely opt to field first. This is because this is an evening game and the team that bowls second will have the dew to deal with. It is much harder to bowl with control when there is dew around, so the team that fields first will believe that they have a big advantage over the team that bats first.

Pitch and Conditions

The conditions should be great for a game of cricket - there is no rain forecast and there should be a comfortable temperature. When it comes to the wicket, in recent years Eden Gardens has supplied some bounce and pace, and we expect to see more of that once again. If that is the case, then it should make for a pretty even game between bat and ball in the first innings. However, when the dew comes into play, everything will probably turn in favour of the side batting second. An average score batting first on this wicket should be somewhere in the 170 mark.

Our Match Prediction

We do feel that India has the better team, but gambling is about taking risks. This format of cricket is one where anything can happen on the day, and we believe that the West Indies, as they showed against a depleted England team, do have enough batting power to trouble India. Therefore, we are going to go against the bookmakers here and recommend that you put your money on the West Indies to win.

Our Match Prediction: