The third and final ODI will be played in Mullanpur ground, New Chandigarh.
Indian team pacer Prasidh Krishna has suffered a hamstring strain, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak revealed, after Men in Blue defeated the West Indies in the second ODI of the three-match series that was played on September 30 in Guwahati.
India defeated the West Indies by 8 wickets in a record-breaking ODI game in Guwahati. The West Indies, batting first, posted 405/7 in 50 overs, thanks to centuries by John Campbell, Shai Hope, and Amir Jangoo.
India then had a record-breaking chase, thanks to Rohit Sharma’s 101, but it was Shubman Gill, whose 223* with 26 fours and 8 sixes, that led India to a dominating 8-wicket win, chasing down 405 runs in 43.3 overs.
Talking to the media after the match, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has revealed that pacer Prasidh Krishna, who has taken 3 wickets in the series, was dealing with a hamstring strain and would undergo further assessment.
"Prasidh Krishna has a strain in the hamstring; he is being monitored. They will do scans, and we will have an update by tomorrow evening," Kotak said in the post-match presser, as quoted by the Times of India.
If Krishna fails to get fit in time for the third ODI on October 3, India will have to change their bowling plans, bringing in either Mohammed Siraj or Nitish Kumar Reddy in the XI.
"Naman is someone who normally doesn't get cramps, but it can happen," Kotak added.
Following an incredible batting-dominated match in which over 800 runs were scored, and five hundreds were recorded—including Rohit Sharma's century and Shubman Gill's double hundred—injury worries were raised.
Kotak claimed that there was no such thing as a perfect cricket surface because of the pitch's characteristics.
"When we talk about pitches, see, I don't think anyone in the world can make a so-called 'perfect pitch.' You can never say this wicket will have 250 or 300 runs. There will always be criticism (there is a batting collapse; curators will be criticized and vice versa when it turns out to be a belter)," Kotak said.
Kotak also pointed to the changing standards of ODI batting, noting how 183 was once a formidable total in the 60-over era before modern batting has pushed expectations towards 400-plus scores.
"So, whether it is only the wicket to blame or the standard of batting is going high, the way guys are batting, it's debatable. But yes, there will be a time when we'll have difficult wickets in one-day games also, and different venues will have different wickets. So hopefully by then we should be prepared,” he added.
The third and final ODI against the West Indies is due to a hamstring injury. This ODI is set to be played at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh, on October 3.