The spotlight will be on Rohit Sharma as India start their home series against the West Indies at Ahmedabad in their first ODI on Sunday.
India has had a horrendous start in 2022, losing the Test series 2-1 followed by a 3-0 whitewash in the preceding ODI series. India were the favourites as South Africa had an inexperienced team and India were expected to win easily but Indian team looked out of sorts under KL Rahul, who was leading the team as Virat Kohli was sacked as ODI captain out of the blue by the selectors.
Rohit Sharma is coming into the series as the new captain of the white ball series after missing the South Africa tour due to a hamstring injury and will have to lift the team which lacked energy and looked flat.
India has been further jolted with three of their main players testing positive, especially Shikhar Dhawan, who looked in good touch in South Africa. They have got Ishan Kishan who will be opening the batting with the skipper. The middle order looks settled with Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav to follow but its high time the middle order comes good in the 50-over format which has been very inconsistent if the top order fails.
Kohli, in spite of being among runs, has not got a hundred in any format for two years and him scoring big will be vital to India’s success. The allrounders’ spot will be taken by Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar but their biggest stCrength would be their wrist spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi, whom the West Indies batsman find it difficult to read. Moreover, Kuldeep Yadav too would be making a comeback and would like to make an impact and get his confidence back.
India have lost their last four ODIs and would like to get wins under their belt and get important points for the World Cup Super League as they have just got 49 points from nine games and would like to better it. This will be India’s 1000th ODI and would like to make it memorable with a win.
Can Rohit Sharma get India back to winning against a dangerous West Indies team? Only time will tell but this is certainly going to be Rohit the captain’s stern test.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the Vice Chairman of Danube Group
