India vs West Indies 2018: Combined ODI playing XI
The Indian team were the clear favourites to win the ODI series owing to their brilliant performances in ODIs since 2015. India hadn't lost a bilateral ODI series at home since their loss against South Africa in 2015.
The first match in Guwahati saw India chase down 322 in just 42.1 overs with the help of Rohit Sharma's and Virat Kohli's brilliant centuries. Shimron Hetmyer also scored a century in that match, but it went in vain.
The second match in Visakhapatnam ended in a tie. In the third match, India failed to chase 289 as they were bundled out for just 240.
India posted a mammoth 377 on the board in the 4th ODI and the Windies failed to chase it down. In the deciding match in Thiruvananthapuram, West Indies got bowled out for a meager 104 runs. India chased down the total with ease and won the series 3-1.
There were some brilliant performances from both the sides as Rohit Sharma scored two 150s and Virat Kohli scored three consecutive centuries this series (4 consecutive in ODIs). Both Hetmyer and Shai Hope scored a century and a half-century century each. Jason Holder and Kieran Powell also scored a half-century each.
Now, let's have a look at the combined playing XI from the ODI series, comprised of the best players across the two teams:
Openers: Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan
The Rohit-Dhawan duo has been in prolific form over the last few years, forming a brilliant top order for India along with Kohli. These two batsmen have a partnership of close to 4,000 runs together, which is the fourth best for an opening pair.
Rohit was been amazing in this series, scoring one half-century and two 150s (152 and 162), which is a record. No other batsman has ever scored two 150s in an ODI series.
Dhawan, on the other hand, did not have a great series but always looked good playing his natural game.
The West Indian openers had a bad outing in India as they never looked comfortable playing against Indian bowlers. Kieren Powell scored 94 runs in five matches and Chandrapaul Hemraj scored 70 in his four innings.
Dhawan scored more runs than Powell and Hemraj, so he is on this list ahead of them. The Indian left-hander scored 112 in five innings whereas Rohit scored 388 runs at an average of 129.33.