IND v WI 2018: Potential debutants for Team India in the upcoming West Indies ODI series

India and West Indies will play five ODIs starting October 21st.

After the successful completion of the India and West Indies Two-Test series which India won emphatically 2-0; the focus now shifts to limited overs series, beginning with the five-match ODI series. The five ODI matches will be played in Guwahati (Oct 21), Vizag (Oct 24), Pune (Oct 27), Mumbai-Brabourne (Oct 29) and Thiruvananthapuram (Nov 1).

India has named their squad for the first two ODIs and Virat Kohli returns to lead the squad after missing the Asia Cup 2018.

Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja and Manish Pandey keep their place while Rishabh Pant makes it into the squad as well. Mohammad Shami returns to the ODI squad after the Australia series last year, so does Umesh Yadav, in place of injured Shardul Thakur. Chahal, Kuldeep, and KL Rahul remain in the squad to take on the Windies team.

Let us take a look at some potential debutants for Team India in the upcoming West Indies ODI series.

Mohammed Siraj
Mohammed Siraj was included in the two-Test series against West Indies, but was not given a debut and was neither chosen for the first two ODIs of the series. Siraj has played three T20Is for India previously and has picked three wickets. Siraj is currently playing for Hyderabad in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and took them into the knockout phase of the tournament.

Siraj is a genuinely deceptive fast bowler with a penchant for bowling toe-crushing yorkers. He has impressed one and all with his pace, skills, and guile. Apart from picking 10 wickets in a match against SA A for India A, he picked 11 wickets against the Australia A team including a career-best 8/59 in Bengaluru recently.  

He has the ability up the ante with his pace and has the required merit and skills to bowl on Indian pitches and get the best out of them.  

Prithvi Shaw
Man of the Series in the recently concluded Test series, which was his debut series for India, Prithvi Shaw showed us what he was made up of with the third fastest century on debut off 99 balls in Rajkot.

Shaw has already shown us his aggressive streak and that is something that might come in handy when India takes on West Indies in the limited overs series. Shaw had lighted up the IPL with his exploits for Delhi Daredevils and has 938 runs in 22 List-A matches with 3 centuries at an astonishing strike rate of 115.37 with 22 sixes.

He has come into the Test series with List A scores of 98, 60 and 129 for Mumbai and is definitely going to be a good option to either Dhawan or Rohit at the top since both of them have been playing for India in limited-overs consistently and a break would do them no harm.

Rishabh Pant

Another pocket powerhouse in limited overs, Rishabh Pant of Delhi has an envious record in IPL and limited overs in domestic cricket. Pant has 838 runs in 34 List A games and 1792 runs in 55 T20 games at a strike rate of 104.35 and 165.31 respectively. Pant scored the second-fastest century in a Twenty20 match, making 100 from 32 balls against Himachal.   

Pant has shown his caliber with a Test century against England in their own den and the twin scores of 92 in the two Tests against Windies. A diminutive batsman with tremendous power and ability to judge the length and line of the ball a bit early than others, Pant is dangerous as once he gets into a rhythm, he keeps going on and on at a frightening pace.

Definitely, he is the finisher that India has been looking for after the decline of MS Dhoni’s hitting prowess and unlike Pandya, Pant is dangerous against both quick and spin bowlers on any surface.