Top 5 Indian batsmen with most runs against West Indies in ODIs

India is scheduled to play the West Indies in a 5-match ODI series starting from the 21st of October. While it looks a complete mismatch on paper after a rather shambolic display by the Windies in the Test series which ended in favour of the home side within three days.

There is again a lot to gain for both the sides, as India will look to finally solve the middle order conundrum and try to nourish Rishabh Pant as a specialist batsman with the ability to finish games in the recent wake of Dhoni's waning batting prowess.

While this tour might not provide the ideal preparation platform that the team management might have been seeking before the all-important Australian tour, it has for what it's worth unearthing a gem like Prithvi Shaw whose batting style is reminiscent of Sehwag from his early days.

Nevertheless, there are records still to be broken in this series with the apogee of clean sweeping the West Indies very much likely to happen this time around. So, here is a list of 5 Indian Batsmen with most runs against the Windies in ODI cricket

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#5 Mohammad Azharuddin

Mohammed Azharuddin of India

Mohammad Azharuddin was an elegant right-handed batsman who hailed from Hyderabad. He amassed 9378 runs in the ODI format and thereby became the first batsman to reach that run aggregate in ODI cricket at the time of his retirement.

West Indies was one of his favourites opposition to play against going by the numbers he has against them. Though he does not have a century, he does have a couple of fifties to go with 998 ODI runs against the mighty Windies of 80's and early 90's.

Matches: 43; Runs: 998; Avg: 26.26; 100s: 0; 50s: 2; Highest: 81; Str: 73.17

#4 Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly was one of India's great captains

Sourav Ganguly is unarguably the greatest cricketer to have come out of the Eastern part of India. Ever since his debut in the whites at Lord's against England in 1996, he became a top-order mainstay for India for close to a decade in the limited overs format.

He formed a fabled partnership with Sachin Tendulkar who went on to give India many-a successful starts. He scored centuries all around the world as evidenced by the tally of his 22 centuries out of which 18 came in foreign conditions.

He was particularly brutal against the Windies of the 90s and early 2000s as he scored a whopping 1142 runs against them at an average of 47.58 with a respectable strike rate of 72.19. This was against the likes of Lara and Chanderpaul with a young Gayle at the top-of-the-order.

Matches: 27; Runs: 1142; Avg: 47.58; 100s:0; 50s: 11; Highest: 98; Str: 72.19

#3 Rahul Dravid

Dravid was an underrated batsman for the men in blue

Rahul Dravid, an ever-dependable and consistent batsman, was the glue that held the top and lower-order of the Indian cricket team for the majority part of his career. He was by no means an attacking batsman but an accumulator of runs whenever he came out to bat.

So it is surprising that out of his 12 ODI centuries 3 have come against Windies to go along with 8 half-centuries. He played a crucial knock of 109* against the Windies in Ahmedabad in 2002 during the West Indies tour of India in 2002.

The knock was special because it came in a chase and with it, India levelled the series 2-2. His numbers though in the larger scheme of things do the justification for the kind of role he played to bind the middle order in tough situations.

Matches: 40; Runs: 1348; Avg: 42.13; 100s:3; 50s: 8; Highest: 109*; Str: 74.39

#2 Virat Kohli

3rd Momentum ODI: South Africa v India

Virat Kohli will in all likelihood continue his extended run of form across formats against the Windies who will now go into the series short of their marquee players and also their coach albeit for first 2 ODIs. This comes as a jolt, especially because Windies are playing the formidable Indians at their own backyard.

There is no opposition in the world that has not conceded to the fact that whenever they play India, they are also playing against a colossus named Virat Kohli who has already amassed 9779 ODI runs.

This run-scoring ability will be seen at a heightened level due to the level of the opposition and the calibre of Virat Kohli. He will look to dethrone the number 1 player from this list after the series ends as he has already amassed 1387 runs against them and needs 186 more runs to become the leading scorer.

Matches: 27; Runs: 1387; Avg: 60.30; 100s:4; 50s: 9; Highest: 127; Str: 92.28

#1 Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin sits pretty at the top

The list would have been incomplete without the mention of a certain little master who dominated attacks around the world that transcended multiple eras and legacies. Sachin Tendulkar had faced a formidable outfit of Windies in the early 90s.

It was due to his longevity that he faced the depleted Windies until the early 2010s. So Tendulkar saw all the shades of Carribean men right throughout his career from their declining but formidable super-team status to their unsurprising but fast descent into oblivion.

So his numbers accumulated over a couple of decades tend to shine and stack up the most for any batsmen on this list. This has obviously had no impact to his already lofty numbers as he has 1573 ODI runs against them at a healthy average of 52.43 to go with 4 centuries scoring at a strike rate of 78.03.

Matches: 39; Runs: 1573; Avg: 52.43; 100s: 4; 50s: 11; Highest: 141*; Str: 78.03