India and the West Indies need to play as many one-day internationals as possible, leading up to the trophy that every team want to win – the World Cup.
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The match is scheduled to begin at 2.30 pm IST (10 am BST, 5 am ET) with live coverage in India on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports HD1. The match can also be watched via free live streaming online by viewers in India on Starsports.com.
Viewers in the UK can catch all the action on Sky Sports 2 or by choosing to live stream online on Sky Go or Watch Sky Sports Online. US viewers can catch the game on Willow TV or Willow TV Online, while Middle East and North Africa viewers can watch the match on OSN or OSN Play.
However, a pay dispute involving the West Indies players might scupper all of those plans even before the coin toss for the first ODI in Kochi.
The WI players are considering going on strike over what they believe is an unfair Memorandum of Agreement recently signed between the West Indies Players' Association and the West Indies Cricket Board.
Bravo or any other senior player did not appear to talk to the media on Tuesday, while the players did not take part in a training session.
Therefore, a boycott of the 1st ODI remains very much a possibility, and that would be a pity for both sides and, more importantly, the fans.
Another factor which could put a dampener on the 1st ODI between India and the West Indies is the weather, with rain forecast for Wednesday in the backwater wonderland.
So, it does look like forces are conspiring to ensure the West Indies tour of India does not begin on the best of notes; but if it does, then there is an intriguing contest in prospect, even if India start as the clear favourites.
MS Dhoni and co. showed their ODI prowess against England, bouncing back from a scathing Test series defeat in style with some brilliant performances. The India cricket team are clearly more comfortable paying with the white ball in hand, and even if West Indies are also at their best in the limited-overs formats, India are definitely a notch or two ahead at the moment.
However, both teams have that embarrassment of riches when it comes to players who can single-handedly win you the game – pretty much all of them batsmen, of course.
If India have the likes of Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, who can take the game away from you easy as pie, the West Indies have the power hitters in the mould of Kieron Pollard, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Smith.
If those big batsmen of the West Indies can find a way to nullify the threat posed by the Indian spinners, then the ODI series will be a lot closer than anticipated. However, if the West Indies allow the spinners to dictate play, much like they did when the teams played in Kochi last time, then there will be only one winner.
While India's strength lies in their batting, the spinners, led by Ravindra Jadeja, and supported by Amit Mishra and Kuldeep Yadav, not to mention the tweaking of Raina, will be the ones that make the difference between a comfortable victory and a more complicated one.
The West Indies have seen their best spinner taken away from them after the decision to take Sunil Narine away from the firing line was made following issues over his action in the CLT20.
Dwayne Bravo has Suliemann Benn to call upon, after the left-armer was brought in as a replacement, but it really is impossible to make up for the loss of Narine, while the WI skipper will also not be able to call upon the powers of Chris Gayle, who has been ruled out through injury.
West Indies, who lost their two practice matches leading up to this ODI series, will hope their big batsmen come to the fore against the bowlers, especially the medium pacers, while India will look for another authoritative home series victory over the team from the Caribbean.
Expected lineups: India: Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra.
West Indies: Dwayne Smith, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Jason Holder, Ravi Rampaul, Suliemann Benn.
