India take on West Indies at Kochi in first ODI after haering the West Indies in Sachin Tendulkar’s swansong Test series. Hosts India will look to continue their supreme form in the ODIs in a three-match series starting Thursday.
The 2-0 whitewash of West Indies was somewhere lost in eotional hooplah and Sachin farewell. The West Indies players will be thanking their stars for the same else they would have come under heavy scrutiny.Now that the epic farewell is now behind us hosts will try and ensure that it is just cricket that is talked and nothing else. On the other hand, West Indies need to pick up themselves and fare much better than they did in the longest form of the game.
Hosts are currently ranked as the number one ODI side in the world after their amazing win 3-2 over Australia at home last month. That run-fest series demonstrated that India are worthy no. 1 when it comes to ODI format, and add to that if India are playing on home soil they are virtually unbeatable in this shorter form of the game. Hence Indians start as firm favourites with a batting line-up, which to put it mildly are in good form.
Dangerous pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dahawn occupies the opening slots and the duo has proved to be a lethal so far with both scoring heavily in India’s last ODI series against Australia. In fact, Rohit joined the club of ODI double-centurions, all Indians, in the last match of that series, smashing a 158-ball 209, which included a record 16 sixes. India’s strong middle order ranges from Virat Kohli to MS Dhoni which is enough to give sleeplees nights to any opposition bowler.
On the other hand, the last time that the tourists played ODI cricket was back in July, when they went down 3-1 at home to Pakistan in what was a closely contested series, including a tied match in the third ODI at Gros Islet.
Key Players
Sunil Narine: It would be unfair not to mentions off-spinner Sunil Narine, currently the world’s second-best ODI bowler to be a dangerous man on subcontinental pitches, even for India’s batsmen. His guile and variation will be key.
Virat Kohli: It is hard to know from where to start when one have a look at the hosts’ array of talent in this shorter form of the game, and even more so after their recent series with Australia where Indian batsman chased down 350 with ease on two occasion and getting past 300 mark on all 5 occassion.
However, if one was to personify most dangerous players at present, then it would be hard look much beyound batsman Virat Kohli. Kohli, as the current world rankings indicate, is the best batsman out there in ODI cricket at the moment than and ultra-confident No. 3 who looks to have all the shots in the book, and for whom no situation appears impossible.