India vs West Indies ODIs: 3 Things India Should Look to Achieve

A home series against a not-so-strong West Indies sandwiched between two long and extremely competitive overseas tours to England and Australia might seem irrelevant, inconsequential and waste of time to many, but one cannot deny the fact that this series provides the perfect platform to try out some new faces and combinations and also look to plug major loopholes. Following this series will be the tough tours to Australia and New Zealand, where team India cannot afford to go unsettled and lacking proper balance. Also, there would not be much scope of experiments so close to the World Cup.

The fact cannot be denied that the quality of this West Indies side is not at par with what the Indian team would have loved to play against at this point in time. The likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, and Kieron Pollard, who have enough experience of playing in Indian conditions, are not in the squad. The already depleted Caribbean side will also miss the services of Evin Lewis, who had a good stint with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Lewis, who was earlier part of the squad, pulled away from the tour, leaving the West Indies batting highly inexperienced. Captain Holder will have his task cut out in managing the limited resources at his disposal.

Kohli and co do not have much to gain from this series in terms of results. However, as evident from the rise of Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant in the test series, the limited-overs leg is also a huge opportunity for some youngsters to prove that they belong at this level and gain some valuable experience Also some established players might use this as an opportunity to gain their form and rhythm back.

Here we look at some of the major things India should look forward to in this series:

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The Solution to the Middle-order chaos

England v India: Specsavers 5th Test - Day Five

There has hardly been any series in the past 18 months or so where the primary issue for India has not been the unsettled middle-order. And the upcoming series against the Windies is no different.

The likes of Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Yuvraj Singh and Ambati Rayudu have all been tried and dropped at some point of time over the past one and half years. Even Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav were sometimes sent up at four, leaving the finishing job vacant. Rishabh Pant is the newest entrant to this chaos and hopefully, he is taken care of better than some of the other mentioned names.

With the tough Australia tour ahead, it is high time India get a settled line-up, which will be beneficial for the team and bring clarity in the minds of individuals.

Finding the third seamer

FINAL - ICC Under 19 World Cup

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have been the major architects of India's success over the past two years in limited overs cricket. The duo is currently one of the most difficult to face at the death. But India do need a good third seamer going into the World Cup, where pitches might require the services more than what Hardik provides.

No doubt Hardik has improved a lot in bowling, but on flat English wickets, it still doubtful if he is a ten-overs bowler. Even if he is, an additional seamer is always helpful in English conditions.

Shami, Khaleel, and Umesh are the three pacers for the upcoming series. Shami and Umesh bring in the much-needed experience, but Khaleel, being a left arm pacer, brings in variety and also has the pace similar to the other two experienced campaigners. The likes of Shardul and Kaul are also in contention. Two among these five will be on the flight to England next June, and this series followed by the Australia tour should give the team management enough idea on who those two will be.

Improving the bench

ECB XI v India A - Tour Match

India have quite a strong ODI setup, as evident from the 16:5 win-loss ratio since the beginning of 2017. But with just 18 games to go before the World Cup begins, India should look to improve the bench strength. A strong bench is of utmost importance in a lengthy tournament like the World Cup since the probability of major players getting injured midway of the tournament is always high.

New faces in the squad have to be given ample opportunities. Rishabh and Khaleel, who are in the squad for the first two games should be given enough game time in this series. Also as the series goes ahead, resting some more senior players and investing in some youngsters who are in the selectors' radars will be a great step towards improving the bench strength.

It will not be a bad idea to give Shaw a go at the top in the latter half of the series, considering his style of play might be the valuable for India in the world cup, where he can be selected as a backup opener along with Rahul.