There’s already a lot of excitement around the T20 cricket with the World Cup in Australia just over 10 months away, India take on West Indies in the first ODI of the three-match series that is being held on Sunday, looking for a 10th straight bilateral ODI series win against the side from the Caribbean.
IND vs WI 1st ODI
With so much buzz around the World T20 as well as the World Test Championship, there would not be much at stake for the two teams in the series, on the other hand, the total of 3 games would rather be more circumstantial for some of the players in order to combine their position in their corresponding sides.
India, on the other hand, had last played a 50-over series in the month of August this year against the same side in the Caribbean, West Indies beaten Afghanistan 3-0 just previous month in Lucknow.
Since the year 1979, India as well as West Indies have played total of 130 ODI games against each other as well as both teams have 62 wins each. The upcoming series, therefore may possily break the tie between the two. On the other hand, the last time West Indies beaten India in a bilateral ODI series was back in the year 2006. Since then, India have 9 against the Caribbean.
Virat Kohli looks to better his own records against WI
Talking about the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, absolutely loves batting against the Caribbean. Indian Cricket team captain is the highest run-scorer against the West Indies in 50-format game. The 31-year-old has collectively scores of 2146 runs in 35 innings against the Men in Maroon that comprises of 9 hundreds and 10 half-centuries. In his last nine innings alone, he’s made six hundreds as well as 870 runs at an average of 174.
The series is also going to be quite crucial for KL Rahul as he would look to shine as an opener in absence of Shikhar Dhawan. Rishabh Pant, on the other hand, would also be looking to find his form in the series in order to answer his critics. At the same time, Mayank Agarwal has been given his maiden ODI call up but then the opener is most likely going to be warming-up the bench. A spin-friendly Chepauk track might possibly also re-unite wrist-spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
Talking about today’s match, Kieron Pollard won the toss and elected to field first. India got off to a slow start. Sheldon Cottrell tried very efficiently to keep Indian openers quiet followed by the wickets of KL Rahul as well as skipper Virat Kohli in the same over.
