Following the issuing of USA visas for both teams on Wednesday, the Florida leg of the T20I series between India and West Indies for the fourth and fifth games is expected to go through as planned this weekend in Florida. The games will be played between India and West Indies.
There was a holdup in the visa process for both teams, and it required the intervention of Guyanese president Irfaan Ali to ensure that the paperwork was completed after members of both teams flew into Georgetown via a charter flight after the conclusion of the third Twenty20 International in St. Kitts on Sunday. The match had been played in St. Kitts. It had been anticipated that the teams would be given their United States travel documents in either Trinidad or St. Kitts, which are hosting the first three Twenty20 Internationals of the series.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) had been confident that the problem would be solved in time, but they had also been preparing a contingency plan to stage the final leg of the series in the Caribbean, primarily in Port-of-Spain. If the problem was not resolved in time, Cricket West Indies would have had to cancel the series.
Those members of the touring party who were in possession of the necessary United States visa arrived in St. Kitts via flight. The remaining members of the group will take a chartered flight from Georgetown to Miami on Thursday. Rahul Dravid, the head coach of the Indian national cricket team, and Rohit Sharma, the team’s captain, are two of them.
A number of logistical challenges have arisen throughout the T20I stage of the race. Due to a delay in the shipment of team kits from Trinidad, the second Twenty20 International that was scheduled to take place in St. Kitts was pushed back by three hours. As a direct result of this, the start time of the third Twenty20 International that was scheduled to take place the following day was put back by 1.5 hours so that players would have enough time to recover.
The current score of the five-game series is India up 2-1, and the following two matches are set to take place consecutively on Saturday and Sunday. They would be extremely concerned about Rohit’s health after he was forced to retire hurt from the third Twenty20 International owing to back spasms.
Matches have been played at the Central Broward Park in Lauderhill, Florida, on every single one of India’s Caribbean tours since 2016, making it a standard stopover for the team whenever it travels to the region.
