With all the negativity hovering around the India cricket team, Virat Kohli and his players will embark on a what-is-it-even-being-played-for tour of the West Indies, strictly consisting of limited-overs matches.
Kohli's popularity at the moment is at an all-time low with the fans after he came out as the villain in the India coach fiasco involving Anil Kumble, and the skipper, in particular, will be keen to get back on the good books of the supporters by putting on a strong show against the West Indies.
Things have gone south for India, on and off the field, ever since their win over Bangladesh in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semifinal.
They lost badly to Pakistan in the CT final, before all hell broke loose behind the scenes leading to Kumble stepping down as the coach after a successful year with the national team.
Now, it will be up to Kohli and his players to convince that taking a stand was the right thing and that Kumble wasn't the right fit.
Of course, winning the ODI series and one-off T20 against the West Indies will not go anywhere in doing that, but it will be a beginning, at least. Ironically, the West Indies tour last year was Kumble's first series after being appointed the India coach by the Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.
In many ways it is a good thing that the next two tours, including this one, is away from home for India – they next go to Sri Lanka – because the mood back home isn't great.
The players are being looked at as petulant, entitled spoilt brats for forcing Kumble to step down, and nobody wants to face the wrath of the supporters, even if the mood can easily be gauged with a mere glance at social media. So, the players will definitely be glad to be playing an away series, and that too quite far from home. Whether they will be sufficiently motivated to give it their all or not is another question.
At the end of the day, this series against the West Indies holds no importance whatsoever, apart from, maybe giving a few of the guys that hardly featured in the Champions Trophy and the ones that have been called in a go.
The likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Shami will be ready to take their chance, if given, in this series, and it will be interesting to see how they go against this West Indies squad, which remains weakened, with several of their big-name players missing.
India vs West Indies 2017 schedule:
ODI series:
1st ODI: Friday, June 23: India vs West Indies (9am local time, 6.30pm IST, 2pm BST) at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain in Trinidad.
2nd ODI: Sunday, June 25: India vs West Indies (9am local time, 6.30pm IST, 2pm BST) at Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
3rd ODI: Friday, June 30: India vs West Indies (9am local time, 6.30pm IST, 2pm BST) at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.
4th ODI: Sunday, July 2: India vs West Indies (9am local time, 6.30pm IST, 2pm BST) at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.
5th ODI: Thursday, July 6: India vs West Indies (9am local time, 7.30pm IST, 3pm BST) at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.
Only T20: Sunday, July 9: India vs West Indies (10.30am local time, 9pm IST, 4.30pm BST) at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.
TV listings: India: Ten 3, Ten 1 HD, Sony Six, Sony Six HD. UK: Sky Sports. USA: Willow TV.
