IND VS WI - 3rd T20I, West Indies tour of India, 2022

That is the end of the West Indies visit. They now travel back home to play England for three Tests before the IPL. Meanwhile, India are hosting Sri Lanka for three T20Is first and two Tests. Rohit was happy to see the team tick a lot of boxes in this series. How will the team respond against Sri Lanka? We just have a three-day break before the first T20I in Lucknow. See you all on Thursday. Take care!

Rohit Sharma collects the trophy and his teammates join him to pose for the cameras.

Rohit Sharma: The team that used to chase, there are not many people here from that squad. We wanted to bat first and chase as well. Because our middle order is fairly new. Happy with the series. Pretty much got everything that we wanted. We do understand we are very young as a team. We are still a good chasing side, but a lot of the players are missing. So we wanted the guys to understand how to bat in pressure situations. It was pleasing to see guys bailing the team out from situations. Good sign moving forward as a group and something to be proud of. Biggest take away from the ODIs was the middle order making it count. I was very impressed with our seam bowling in ODIs. And even here. Harshal is new. Avesh is on debut. Shardul is in and out. So challenge for us was to give them game time and see how they respond. When you play against a team like West Indies, you can test your batting and bowling. They bat very deep. It was a good challenge to defend in both games. Few guys miss out for the Sri Lanka series because we want to keep them fresh. But we have the World Cup in mind and we are trying to give game time for individuals. Sri Lanka will be a different challenge. But I am not someone who looks at the opposition, I would like to see what we can do as a team. Ground fielding, catching is something we can correct. Hopefully we can tick that box as well.

Suryakumar Yadav | Player of the Match | Player of the Series: Just wanted to replicate what I did in the first game. Needed someone to stay there after Rohit got out and get the team to a defendable total. We had a long chat in the team meeting as to how we are going to react under immense pressure and it came out very well. I just try to keep things simple. Being a little harsh on yourself in the nets, don't hit every ball wildly and have some quality sessions. Excited for the next series.

Kieron Pollard: We were in the game for 15 overs, but we gave them 85-odd in the last five. We did have a good start with the bat, were 70-odd in 7 or 8 overs and weren't able to capitalize. Nicholas showed his consistency. Rovman Powell showed he wants to be part and parcel of the white-ball teams. Coming to India is going to be difficult but the way the boys responded was good on our part. From the ODI perspective, we had a chance to win that series, bowling them out for 230-odd in second game and last game, so it is not all doom and gloom. These guys are finding their foot, it is like on the job training for them and we look forward to see what the future holds. From the T20 perspective, we went with experience for the (2021) World Cup and didn't get the job done, but now we are working with what we got.

Shardul Thakur: I think so. I have done it in the IPL for CSK for the last four years. Playing for India is a greater responsibility and five months before the World Cup, we all have to be ready as a bowler to bowl in the death. You have to be ready to use your variations, you are going to go for runs but one six or four shouldn't play on your mind. We have to be mentally tough and think about the next delivery. You have to follow a process. The basic idea was to bowl wide yorkers from the end I was bowling, maybe slower yorkers or normal yorkers.

Harshal Patel: We spoke about it after the powerplay (the line and length). The ball was holding on to the wicket and therefore we wanted to keep it a little fuller. Whenever we bowled shorter they had the time to sit back and pull it. We had the conversation that we want to bowl fuller. You have to have clarity on what you are going to bowl. Just focusing on the next delivery is important. There was a bit of dampness in the wicket because of the weather and it was making it difficult for us to hold on to the landing area. I don't think there was a lot of dew.

Here's a stat round up for the day, courtesy Deepu Narayanan:

Most successive wins in T20Is for India:
9 wins: Jan - Dec 2020
9 wins: Nov 2021 - Feb 2022 *
7 wins: Dec 2012 - Apr 2014
7 wins: Feb - Mar 2016
7 wins: Mar - Jul 2018

Most successive wins as captain in T20Is (Full Member sides):
12 Asghar Afghan (2018-20)
9 Sarfaraz Ahmed (2018)
9*Rohit Sharma (2019-22)
Note: Asghar Afghan led Afghanistan to 11 successive wins between 2016 & 2017 but they did not have a Full Member status then

Most defeats in T20Is (including Super Over losses):
83 West Indies
82 Sri Lanka
78 Bangladesh
76 New Zealand

India vs WI - last four T20I series:
2018 (Ind): India won 3-0
2019 (WI): India won 3-0
2019 (Ind): India won 2-1
2022 (Ind): India won 3-0

Avesh Khan was having trouble with the landing spot and was expensive too. So the pressure was on India but Shardul turned the heat on in the 18th getting Pooran and conceding just six runs. Then Harshal did his end-overs bowling mastery that he does so well these days and he took care of Shepherd too. Shardul had 23 in the bank to defend and he closed out nicely. It would have looked completely different had Pooran batted through. Most likely would have won it for West Indies, but he might as well want to look back at those dots that came by bowling a wider angle to him. Played quite a few of them to Bishnoi and the rest, Bishnoi might not have taken a wicket but he played a crucial role in squeezing the runs.

22:48 Local Time, 17:18 GMT, 22:48 IST: India scored 86/1 in the last five overs, West Indies scored only 42/3 in their last five. There is the game for you. What a brilliant display of death bowling from Harshal Patel and Shardul Thakur. It was Bhuvi and Harshal last game, this time they have found a different duo and the team management will be extremely happy with the execution of their bowlers. West Indies did have their noses comfortably ahead at the end of the powerplay. But Harshal got the key wicket of Rovman Powell immediately, thanks to a stunning catch from Shardul and then Venky came on to get Pollard and Holder to do an outstanding job as a sixth bowling option, filling in for Deepak Chahar, who walked off injured. Pooran was going great guns, but slowed down considerably because he was losing partners. It made a lot of sense with Shepherd looking ominous and getting the big hits at the other end.

Thakur to Hayden Walsh, no run, bumper it is to round off the game and Walsh misses. India yet again defend well under pressure to seal the series 3-0 and with this win they become the No. 1 ranked T20I team

Thakur to Hayden Walsh, no run, short and angling across outside off stump. Walsh slogs and misses

Thakur to Hayden Walsh, no run, lovely slower delivery angling across, Walsh slogs and misses

Thakur to Hayden Walsh, wide, way outside off stump, reload

Hayden Walsh, left handed bat, comes to the crease

Thakur to Drakes, out Caught by Rohit!! In the air and taken at extra-cover. What a brilliant diving catch by the captain. Slower delivery again, Drakes looked to drive hard, hit this in the air. Oh actually Rohit is wide at mid-off. He moved to further to his right and taken this inches from the ground. Drakes c Rohit b Thakur 4(3) [4s-1]

Thakur to Drakes, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Thakur to Drakes, FOUR, there is Drakes's batting ability on display. Must have faced Thakur in the CSK nets last year. Picked this slower delivery and waited to muscle this drive through cover

Thakur to Drakes, no run, wide yorker, swing and a miss. Top delivery from Thakur to start with