The One-day internationals are here after a short Test series between India and West Indies. In an ideal scenario, this series would have served as the perfect start of the preparations for the World Cup but West Indies didn’t even qualify for the tournament for the first time in history and the results and performances in the series for the Indian team and players might not be a good parameter to judge. However, the series is an opportunity for the Indian team to look at a couple of backup options with the first-choice players injured.
The biggest selection conundrum ahead of the series opener in Barbados on Thursday, July 27 will be the wicketkeeper Team India chose to go with. With both KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant unavailable, it has opened up a spot for both Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson to stake a claim at. With Shubman Gill set to open alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan might find it difficult to get a place in the middle-order. And since the player unavailable, Rahul, plays at No. 5, Samson might just fit the bill since he plays in the middle-order.
Another selection point will be Suryakumar Yadav’s negligible returns in formats other than T20. Three golden ducks in the ODI series against Australia didn’t help and with Shreyas Iyer still on the sidelines, it has given Surya another opportunity to make it count as he is in Team India’s plans for the World Cup.
Kuldeep Yadav will be persisted with having played ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal while Axar Patel will be the unlucky one to miss out despite staggering form with both bat and ball across formats with Ravindra Jadeja coming back. Shardul Thakur missed the second Test due to a niggle and if he stays out, one of Jaydev Unadkat or Mukesh Kumar get the opportunity. The rest of the line-up picks itself.
India’s likely playing XI for 1st ODI: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur/Jaydev Unadkat, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Mohammed Siraj
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