Battle of the lost(s): West Indies Tour of India 2022
West Indies after defeating England in the T20 series will now fly to India for their month-long tour. The tour is set to commence with 3 ODIs starting from 6th February, at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad - the world’s largest Cricket Stadium and will be the 1000th ODI match for the Indian cricket team.
As every cloud has a silver lining, the dejected Indian team will look to relaunch themselves after an unforgettable tour of South Africa. The tour started and concluded with controversies, for Team India, of course! This will also be the first match for Rohit Sharma as a full-time permanent captain for team India. After recovery, his return to the squad gives a much-needed boost to the men in Blue that looked vulnerable in South Africa. He was ruled out of the SA tour owing to his injury. He will definitely want to make his presence felt and help India stake a claim, especially when India suffered a disappointing loss against South Africa in the ODI series. Indian fans won’t settle for anything less than a whitewash.
On the other hand, West Indies will look to bounce back after being humiliated by Ireland that too in their Homeland, losing the series by 2-1(Good for cricket, though). Seasoned pacer Kemar Roach and young all-rounder Nkrumah Bonner have been recalled to the West Indies ODI squad. Owing to this, 6 additions have been made to the Kieron Pollard-led side.
ALL EYES ON THE World Cup 2023: The ODI World Cup is coming up next year; both teams will look to see how the players' build up and thus achieve the right squad balance, which will be crucial in keeping the eyes on the ICC trophy.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, both included in the ODI squad, are expected to open the batting while we might see KL Rahul drop down in the batting position. We might also see an upper order dilemma as the Indian bench has Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, and those who hit high with their bats. Too much brainstorming is needed for both Dravid and Rohit here.
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are still absent due to their injuries, so India has one more chance to experiment with their all-rounders in this series. Not only this, with Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah rested against West Indies, it will be interesting to see which bowler fits in the shoes as a crucial wicket-taker. Venkatesh Iyer, who was rewarded for his domestic performance in the South Africa tour, has been excluded from the series.
SEVEN things to watch out in this ODI series:
Re-union of Kul-cha. Though Kuldeep Yadav did not have much impressive outing in the previous inclusion, the upcoming home tour can bring back the remarkable combination of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Or will it be curtains for Kuldeep! Only time will tell.
All eyes will be on Rohit’s captaincy as everyone would like to see how Team India performs under his leadership.
Maiden ODI and T20 call for Ravi Bishnoi in the squad.
Batting all-rounder Deepak Hooda had an impressive performance in IPL at all batting positions. Getting a chance in Playing XI might increase the depth of India’s performance.
Pollard’s understanding of Indian conditions will be a big plus for the West Indies squad.
Seasoned pacer Kemar Roach has been recalled into the squad and has taken 365 international wickets, including 124 in 92 ODIs, but has not played a one-day game since 2019
Young batter Nkrumah Bonner has been quite a consistent part of Test cricket. He made his ODI debut last year against Bangladesh and has played three matches.
India is yet to win their first match this year, and West Indies is onto finding a stable team under Pollard’s captaincy. This series will answer many questions for both the cricketing nations on their plan, combination, and players. All the action starts from 6th February, and we will keep you covered with all the happenings. It will be interesting to see which of these two Mumbai Indian players lead their team to victory.
Happy Cricketing.