After winning the two-Test series against the West Indies 1-0, the Indian team will now move onto the white-ball part of the tour with the first of the three ODIs to be played on July 27, 2023, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
For the Indian team, these three ODIs will be of utmost importance as they prep for the World Cup 2023, but for the West Indies, this series can be used to experiment as they failed to qualify for the ICC event for the first time.
India will be without some of their first-choice pacers as Mohammad Shami was rested for this entire tour and Mohammed Siraj flew back home with other Test-only players as he has been rested for the rest of the tour as well.
With this in consideration, here is the COC Predicted Team India playing XI for the first ODI vs. West Indies.
WI v IND 2023: Mohammed Siraj rested for ODI series versus West Indies to manage workload – Report
The opening combination is expected to remain the same with captain Rohit Sharma starting the innings with Shubman Gill who has had an excellent year thus far with a double-century to his name. There is the option of bringing in Ruturaj Gaikwad as well, but the Indian team management wouldn’t want to tinker with what’s going well.
Virat Kohli is expected to continue his good form in ODIs as well but the focus will be on Suryakumar Yadav, who last played ODIs against Australia and was dismissed for three consecutive first-ball ducks. He will be eager to get the monkey off his back, especially after a very good IPL 2023.
India will have to choose either Ishan Kishan or Sanju Samson for the wicketkeeper’s slot and while Kishan has the aggressive streak in him, his struggles with the spin in the middle of the innings are well known.
This might make the management go for Sanju Samson, who had done well in the previous tour of West Indies with the bat and behind the stumps.
Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, and Akshar Patel will be the all-rounders India should go with and Pandya will be a key player now with the ball, after Mohammed Siraj was rested for ODIs as well.
This makes Shardul Thakur the most experienced pacer in the lineup and he will be tasked with leading Mukesh Kumar and Umran Malik.
Given that West Indies batters struggle against spin, then India can also go with Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist spin as well.
COC Predicted Team India playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik
