India vs West Indies: Will Virat Kohli put on a show in the decade-ender series decider in Cuttack

The Barabati Stadium in Cuttack is all set to host India's concluding international match of the decade on Sunday. The 3-match ODI series between India and West Indies has been a high-scoring and entertaining one thus far with both the sides winnings a game apiece. Riding on the winning momentum, India will thus look to end their year on high and would look to avoid their second successive bilateral series loss at home.

The last time India lost two consecutive bilateral series at home was in April 2005, when Pakistan beat them 4-2 and prior to that India suffered a 4-3 loss to West Indies in 2002. When Australia toured India last year, they defeated the hosts 3-2 to win the series in the decider.

India have had their own share of injury woes in the series with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being ruled out at first and then Deepak Chahar was also sidelined with an injury to bring in Navdeep Saini has his replacement for the third ODI. In the series opener in Chennai, West Indies kept India's weak bowling line-up under pressure but the hosts had their powerful batting on show in Vizag to give their bowlers 387 runs to defend.

For West Indies, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran have come out good in the series but their bowlers have not been able to tackle pressure as seen in both the games.

Pitch Report

In the last ODI played at this track between India and England in January 2017, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni scored centuries each to set a total of 381 runs batting first as England responded with 366 for 8. Dew is expected to play some role in the second innings. Shreyas Iyer had mentioned in the press conference that the pitch will be "really fast" in the second innings and the dew factor will play a "massive role".

Out of the 18 matches at this venue, 11 have been won while batting second. Though India have not won the toss yet and have been put in to bat first both the times, they should be looking to chase if coin toss rules in their favour.

Players in focus

Virat Kohli has scored just 4 runs in the last two matches with getting dismisses for a golden duck in the Vizag. If Kohli gets going in cuttack and manages 56 more runs, he will surpass South African legend Jacques Kallis in the list of highest run-getters in ODI history.

Kohli currently sits at the eighth spot with 11524 runs and another 56 runs will see him go past Kallis, who scored 11579 runs from 314 matches.

Kuldeep Yadav , who became the first Indian to take two ODI hat-tricks in the last game, will look to take his 100th ODI wicket on Sunday to become the joint-fastest Indian to do so.

Probable Playing X1

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal.

West Indies: Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (WK), Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Nicolas Pooran, Kieron Pollard (C), Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Alzarri Joseph, Khary Pierre, Sheldon Cottrell.