After defeating the West Indies team 2-1 in the T20I series, Virat Kohli and his Indian team will face them in a series of three ODI matches. The first of the ODI will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on December 15, Sunday.
This will start a series of ODI matches for India at home and they might want to do well keeping in mind different combinations and the fact that the team management is yet to find a suitable batsman at no.4. Considering all this, Team COC presents to you the Predicted playing XI of Team India for the first ODI in Chennai.
With Shikhar Dhawan being ruled out of the ODI series as well; KL Rahul is expected to continue to open the innings with Rohit Sharma as well. Rahul is in good touch at the top and has a great chance to push for a permanent spot if he performs extremely well. Rohit, on the other hand, will love to repeat his performance of the 2018 series, where he bludgeoned the Windies bowlers.
Virat Kohli would also want to continue his good run of T20Is in the ODIs, especially after his exploits against the Windies in their own backyard. The team management would like to continue with Shreyas Iyer at the no.4 spot after he scored two half-centuries against the same opposition in the Caribbean. Manish Pandey is expected to play at no.5 spot since both he and Iyer are being looked at as potential permanent members in the team going forward from here.
Rishabh Pant will be given another chance behind the stumps and with the bat as well. He is under tremendous pressure to perform with even fans clamoring for his head if he fails to score with the bat once again. Kedar Jadhav is being picked as the finisher and part-time spinner and is expected to be included in the Chennai ODI as well.
Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal are primed to be picked as the spinners for the first ODI, given their experience and the good form of the leg-spinner who has forced his way back into the T20I team as well.
The fast bowling duties might be shared by Mohammad Shami and Deepak Chahar given the Chepauk pitch is conducive to spin rather than fast bowling, but with Chahar’s experience of playing for CSK in IPL and Shami’s overall form with the white ball recently, these two bowlers are expected to do the damage on that surface as well.
COC Predicted Team India playing XI for the first ODI versus West Indies:
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Shami
