Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan and pace bowler Mohammad Shami are likely to be back in the ODI team for the series against West Indies which starts on August 8. With the inclusion of Dhawan in the team, KL Rahul is probably going to go back to his number four spot. India will play their first ODI match after their defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
The Indian opener will join Rohit Sharma to open the batting for India after he was ruled out of the World Cup with a finger injury he suffered in a group stage fixture against Australia. On the other hand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is probably going to be rested with Mohammad Shami and in-form Navdeep Saini leading the Indian pace attack.
Kedar Jadhav is expected to feature in the team at the number five or six spot provided Rishabh Pant bats elsewhere. Pant has shown some promise in the final T20 international of the West Indies series taking India home along with skipper Virat Kohli. It will be interesting to see who gets a chance between Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer to add stability to the middle-order.
Men in Blue skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be looking forward to continuing the form they are in. Sharma was in the form of his life in the World Cup. The 32-year-old opener scored 648 runs in the nine matches he played hitting five centuries and a half-century.
West Indies have their task cut-out after their drubbing by India in the T20 series. They desperately need to bounce back and mend their ways before they face another whitewash in the ODI series. The Caribbean team will be relieved with the inclusion of big-hitter Chris Gayle back in the squad. This will be the last ODI series for Chris Gayle as the opener had mentioned hanging his boots after the India series.
