India and West Indies head to Indore for potential run-fest with series level

(Cricinfo) – Just when you think it can’t get worse for the West Indies and India bowlers, their next venue is Indore. After 501 runs were scored in Ranchi in 38.3 overs – 352 of them in boundaries – these two beleaguered bowling units get only one day to recover before they are put to the sword in the most notorious of batting paradises.

There hasn’t been any T20 cricket in Indore for two years, but the last three ODIs have had scores of 399, 385 and 337. In the last completed IPL match there, eight years ago, 245 played 214. India have also scored 260 at the venue against Sri Lanka in 2017, in an era when they weren’t even as serious about T20 cricket.

Indore usually turns out to be a true surface and has notoriously small boundaries, as most grounds in the middle of Indian cities tend to do. That few T20 records have occurred there just seems to be more happenstance, a lack of familiarity, than design. Another statistical oddity is that on this tour so far, all five matches – three ODIs and two T20Is – have been won by chasing sides.