 The Indians will continue with their tour of the West Indies with the first
ODI that will be played at the Port of Spain on Monday. The Indians had started
off with a win in the tour when they beat the West Indies in the one-off T20I
and will now look to win the ODI series as well and convincingly at that.
India may look to go into the game with a very similar side to that
which played in the T20I. The opening combination did not do too well for the
side, especially Shikhar Dhawan, who hasn't performed well in the limited opportunities
that he has got but this will be another chance at batting through a longer
period of time. He will need to ensure that he can get going with a long enough
innings that will get his form back.
Click for Live Score Card of West Indies v India
On the other hand, Parthiv Patel had had a good start to the innings and will
look to build on his innings. He will have the likes of Virat Kohli and
Suresh Raina coming in at the number three and four positions and both
will hope to get in line with the slow seeming pitch at the Port of Spain. Both
played strokes that were unbecoming of them on such pitches - Kohli played across
the line while Raina tried to hit the ball over the top very early in the innings.
The Indian bowling did a good job except for the last few overs. Rather surprisingly,
there is no Christopher Barnwell which means that the West Indian side has no-one
to up the ante down the order except Kieron Pollard. A huge role will need to
be taken up by the likes of Lendl Simmons and Marlon Samuels at the top
of the order and that will mean that there will be pressure on them to deliver.
The West Indies side will obviously be bolstered by the presence of the likes
of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, but they will still be without Chris
Gayle and that will mean that they will go into the ODIs as a stronger unit.
India will be favourites but one must understand that they do not have a full-fledged
squad here with the likes of Kohli and Raina being their best bat. However, the
pitch will play a huge part given that it has been slow there and assisting the
Indians more than the home team.
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