The Windies whirlwind tour of India moves into its ODI section with the first of three matches taking place in Chennai.
In the T20I series, the West Indies were overwhelmed by India’s batting power particularly in the series finale where a fired-up Virat Kohli led the charge.
Photo Copyright – Steve Haag Sports
First ODI (D/N) | Sunday 15 December 2019 | M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai | 10:00
To Win
India 21/100
Tie 35/1
West Indies 7/2
India
The manner in which India put the West Indies away in the third T20I points to their motivation to do well despite being engaged in a low stakes series.
The switch to the ODI format should see the gape between the two sides widen but recent matches between these two sides have been a lot closer than expected.
Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the series, and his place as opening partner to Rohit Sharma could be taken by his replacement in the squad Mayank Agarwal, or Lokesh Rahul, with the latter impressing in the final T20I.
Allrounder Shivan Dube is set to make his ODI debut with Hardik Pandya still absent through injury while Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja are preferred ahead of Krunal Pandya for the ODI squad.
West Indies
Chris Gayle made himself unavailable for this series while stopping short of finally retiring from the shorter formats of the game. Brandon King gets an extended run as the partner to Evin Lewis as a result.
Kieron Pollard’s leadership seems to be stirring something in the team, but the test will be his ability to get consistent results against the top sides with him as captain.
Left-arm spinner Khary Pierre has a lot riding on his performance with the West Indies bowling attack skewed towards pace and missing experienced tweakers.
The Windies have played six ODIs at the venue, but their only win came back in 2007. India have played 13 matches at the venue returning mixed results, they have beaten the West Indies in Chepauk three times in four meetings but have only won seven their seven times in all ODIs.
Verdict: India
India should be too strong.
Written by James Richardson for Hollywoodbets.
