WI v IND 2019: India's predicted playing XI for the first ODI against West Indies
After a heart-wrenching World Cup 2019 campaign, India will return to on-field action with a tour to West Indies. The Caribbean nation will host India for 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is, and 2 Tests. In the process, the two teams will officially kick-start the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.
With the Indian team soon departing for the Caribbean islands, the Indian selectors revealed the squad for all the three formats today. As opposed to the initial rumors, Virat Kohli will lead the team in all three formats. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni made himself unavailable for the tour as he takes a brief break from cricket.
Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have been rested from the limited-over formats. Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer are back in the white-ball squad. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik misses out after a poor World Cup campaign. In the bowling department, the selectors have included Khaleel Ahmed and Navdeep Saini in the white-ball squad.
With the ODI series starting on August 08, let us look at India’s predicted playing XI for the first ODI against West Indies.
#1 Openers (Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan)
Rohit Sharma had a dream World Cup 2019 as he scored 648 runs in nine matches with five centuries and one half-century. Rohit’s five centuries were the most by any batsman in a single edition of the World Cup.
However, the Indian vice-captain failed in the all-important semi-final clash against New Zealand. His dismissal triggered the batting collapse in the semi-final. Nevertheless, Rohit will look to start the ODI series against West Indies on a fresh note.
After a poor outing in India’s first World Cup 2019 game, Shikhar Dhawan scored an excellent century in the next match against Australia. In particular, he batted with a fractured thumb against Australia. Later, he was ruled out of the World Cup after he failed to recover from the injury. Since Dhawan has regained full fitness now, he finds himself a place in the West Indies tour.