West Indies vs India, 1st ODI: Match Preview, Head to Head, Playing XI and Broadcast Details

India will commence the West Indies tour with a three-match ODI series followed by as many T20Is. The Indian team will be missing the services of senior players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Rishabh Pant as the captaincy role has been handed to Shikhar Dhawan. After a 2-1 victory over England, the Men in Blue will look to continue their winning momentum.

On the other hand, West Indies are coming off a 3-0 defeat against Bangladesh at home. They dominated the Test and T20Is against the opponents by winning both the series by 2-0 but failed to put up a good show in the ODIs. The West Indies have struggled to establish the correct tempo in ODI cricket for a while now.

India had hosted West Indies in February, and clean swept both the ODI and T20I series by 3-0. India had last toured the West Indies in 2019, where the first game was washed out due to rain, but the Men in Blue managed to win the second and third ODI. That was the series where Kohli hit an ODI ton and bagged the Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards. Notably, he hasn’t managed to hit an ODI century ever since.

West Indies, however, haven’t been able to strike the correct balance in the 50-over format, when it is necessary to control the hitting and shift the strike in the middle overs regularly. Either they have shut down or have tried to be overly aggressive. As a result, the squad has struggled to bat through the complete 50 overs. Before announcing his retirement, even Kieron Pollard stressed the need for West Indies to bat for the entire 50 overs in the format.

The in-form India has defeated West Indies in the two teams’ last 11 ODI encounters, thus remaining unbeaten in the 50-over format. In terms of the bilateral series, India haven’t lost against the Windies since May 2006. The Indian batters have found a good rhythm, and as for the bowlers, Ravindra Jadeja will be the one to look out for as he has the most number of wickets against West Indies, after the legendary Kapil Dev, in ODIs.

Pitch Conditions

The Queen’s Park Oval pitch frequently assists both bowlers and hitters. Given that it offers both pacers and spinners hope as the game progresses, the surface is usually unpredictable. However, if a team gets off to a strong start, batters will have their opportunities as they can overcome the natural middle-over slump.

Playing Combinations for WI vs IND

West Indies

All that the West Indies batters need to do is stick by till the end of 50 overs. Their biggest flaw in the ODI has to be rectified soon if the hosts want to win this one. They have a lineup filled with power-hitters, but they’ll have to repeat their T20I strength in the ODIs too.

Predicted Playing XI: Shai Hope, Shamarh Brooks, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Nicholas Pooran (c and wk), Rovman Powell, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Akeal Hosein, Keemo Paul

India

The Shikhar Dhawan-led side will see a handful of new faces as compared to their recent England stint. Ishan Kishan will be back in the top order in Rohit Sharma’s absence and will join the skipper while opening the innings. Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda will be players to watch out for as they have been tremendous with the bat in the white-ball setup.

Predicted Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal

WI vs IND Head-to-Head

Played- 136 | West Indies- 63 | India- 67 | Tied- 02 | NR- 04

WI vs IND Broadcast Details

Match Timings- 7:00 PM IST

TV- DD Sports (Extended broadcasters)

Streaming- SonyLiv (Official broadcasters)