India vs West Indies 2019: 3 battles to watch out for

#2 Virat Kohli vs Hayden Walsh Jr

Virat Kohli

Be it Tests, ODIs or T20Is, Indian captain Kohli is currently on top of his game irrespective of the format. He took a break from T20Is against Bangladesh, and would be raring to go again as India look to lock down their team for the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in Australia next year.

With Kohli returning to T20Is, the unofficial battle between him and Sharma for the top run-getter in T20Is will also resume. They have been running neck-and-neck for the past few T20I series.

Hayden Walsh Jr

Like Sharma, Kohli too has one chink in his game, if we can even call it that: he has a habit of getting out to leg-spinners.

Adil Rashid dismissed him twice in England last year as India went 1-2 down in the ODI series, and then in the IPL this year Rajasthan Royals’ Shreyas Gopal bamboozled Kohli not once but twice. Even Aussie leg-spinner Adam Zampa frequently got the better of the Indian captain when Australia visited India earlier this year.

Hayden Walsh Jr may not be in the same league yet, but the stats will definitely give him hope. Walsh Jr demonstrated in CPL 2019 that he is a wicket-taking bowler, with 22 scalps in nine matches at an economy rate of 8.28.

He played a pivotal role in Barbados Tridents' title triumph, and was among the wickets in the recent series against Afghanistan as well. However, bowling to Kohli will be a challenge of a completely different level.