Have India really run out of ideas against Shai Hope?

The view doing the rounds is that India's bowlers have no idea where to bowl to Shai Hope, and that the West Indies captain has spent this T20I series batting in a different postcode from everyone else. The strongest evidence comes from the second match. India posted 249 for five, and Hope finished unbeaten on 102 from 45 balls as West Indies chased it down in 18.3 overs.

Around that innings sit 52 from 37 balls in the opening match, which India won by eight wickets, and 5 from 5 balls in the third, which India won by 14 runs.

Is Hope batting differently against India?

Hope came into this series off a quiet September with Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL, where his highest score in seven innings was 42 not out from 35 balls and two of those seven innings ended in ducks. That is the record of a steady top-order batter having an ordinary month, and nobody was calling the CPL's bowlers clueless.

The hundred off 45 balls was something else entirely, like a man who usually walks to the station suddenly deciding to sprint for the train. The fifty in the opener was nearer the familiar Hope, brisk and useful, and India still won that match with plenty to spare.

Do India need a new plan for him?

Our franchise ratings place Hope in the middle of the pack in leagues from the CPL to the BBL, worth about 1.4 runs a match more than an average batter. That describes a sound, dependable batter who has had one extraordinary night, which is a long way short of unplayable.

India remain our top-rated T20 side, and our ratings make them 68% favourites for Saturday's match at the Chinnaswamy.

The verdict on Hope and India

Hope deserves every word of praise for a hundred that hauled down a total of 249. Clueless is the wrong word for India's attack, though.

An attack beaten only on the night of that hundred, by a batter our ratings judge solid rather than devastating, has run into one great innings, and India's bowlers should go to the Chinnaswamy trusting the plans that worked in the other two matches.