India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series - Review

• So after a promising start to the series, and at mid point it looked like Windies were going to create upset and probably win the series. But then they fizzled out.

In 4th ODI, in Mumbai although they got the run machine Kohli out early, they had Rohit to content along with Raydu. This match confirmed definitely Raydu as the number 4 slot for World cup. This match also brought out the best of Khaleel Ahmed, and potentially as 4th Seamer for the WC squad.

In the 5th ODI, It was even more disastorous performance from Windies, and there is noting much to write about this.

Overall from Windies point of view, they have very good young talent in Hope and Hetmyer who should be nurtured along with experienced Holder and Nurse. With some more experienced player joining the WC squad, I feel this Windies team can compete in England and can cause some upsets on a given day against top team like they did here in this series.

Coming to India performance, what do we know, what still remain concerns.

Top Three

• Rohit continues to one of the most dominant opener in ODI currently in the world
• Dhawan is bit lazy, and repeating the same mistakes again. So probably India needs to have a good back-up option for opener if Dhawan continues to be in this form
• Virat Kohli - continues to show why he is the Number one ODI player 

Middle Order

• Ambati Rayudu pretty much cemented his number 4 position in this series with couple of good innings
• Dhoni continued his struggle, and there are people now openly talking about replacing Dhoni with Pant
• Pant did not get enough chances, and in the brief period he was there at the wicket, he demonstrated how he probably can provide that thrust required in late innings while setting-up the target or chasing. Probably T20 series will give us more pointers on his ability and how he can perform in the international level in the shorter format
• Jadhav did not get to bowl, but showed in the one innings he fits well as a finisher role and part-time backup spinner

Spinners

• The 3 spinner slots are booked between Kuldeep, Chahal and Jadeja and probably it will be a toss-up between Chahal and Jadeja in the XI depending on the opposition and pitch

Seamers

• At this stage it looks like Khaleel and Shami are the back option for Bumrah and Bhuvi. Although Bhuvi himself has not been in a great form in ODI over last one year. But hopefully in the next few ODI leading-up to WC, he should get into the groove

Backup Batsmen, Openers

• At this stage it seems like it is going to be KL Rahul and Manish Pandey

So let us wait for Aus ODI series to see how well India can perform with this squad on more flatter surfaces which we are likely to face during WC in England

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series Preview

So as it gets nearer to 2019 ODI World Cup to be held in England, every ODI series, every ODI match becomes important.
At this stage based on current form England the number one ODI team is the favorite team to win the Cup for multiple reasons. 1) The all-round depth they have in terms of bowling and batting. They have 6-7 bowlers who can easily bowl quota of overs in a given match. 2) Their bowling line-up now has good mix of both Fast and spin bowlers 3) Their ODI death bowler are probably are the best in business along side India line up 4) Their middle order and lower middle lower order batting is the strongest

Along side England if one were to look for favorites - India probably gets tagged on that along with Bangladesh. Yes Bangladesh because of the way they have performed since the 2015 World cup and their performance can be reviewed in just concluded Asia Cup where they performed admirably well despite missing their top ranked players.

Now coming to this India vs West Indies ODI Series, it is expected for India to win this series. Windies are the champions of T20 format, but for ODI series - they are missing their some of the key players like Chris Gayle, Bravo, Russel, Pollard, Sunil Narine. So their batting line up mostly resembles what they had in test line-up. Since all these ODI's are D/N and held in winter, expect some matches to be effected by Dew despite early start at 1.30 PM IST. So if the Windies chase in some of these ODI - we can expect them to cause upset. India is also missing their seam bowler all-rounder and first choice seamers for this series (at least in the line up for first 2 ODI).

So let us look at what India will be trying to achieve in this series to fine tuning the squad for the World cup.

Top three batsmen are pretty much settled for India team, and only we need to find a backup opener. At this stage backup opener seems to be KL Rahul, But he is not getting much game time to grab that spot. I have seen India always getting to back to Ajinkya Rahane for that spot when ever that need has raised in the past. Ideally India test out KL Rahul some time in this series for backup opener slot.

Middle order and lower middle order is the biggest problem area of India, and compared to England this becomes even more glaring. Despite this India is still ranked favorite aside England is because of their top order and bowling unit. But what pulls them down is the middle order.

Dhoni has been out of form for more than area, and this out of form become more glaring during chasing. Dhoni's inability to rotate the strike is one of the major concerns. Unlike in the past, he seems to now also lost the ability to accelerate in the later stage to make-up for the slow strike rate in the earlier part of his innings. But he will continue to be there in World cup squad because of his experience and not because of his current batting form.

Kedhar Jadhav is another assure middle order spot for now - again not because of his batting, but due to his bowling :). 

Ambati Raydu is being tried for number 4 slot - but I am not convinced with his ability specially while chasing. He has come back to team based on his performance in IPL this year. But in Asia Cup, it showed again that he cannot translate his IPL performance to international level. Ideally I would have liked Manish Pandey to be played in this sport. Manish Pandey also adds great value to the team because of electric fielding.

Due to Dhoni's continue poor form and inability of Dinesh Karthick to grab that spot during the Asia Cup, India has gone to Rishabh Pant to give much impetus needed to their middle order. Rishabh Pant based on his IPL performance and his recent Test performance, certainly looks the good candidate to provide that much need boost in the middle order. But Rishabh also seems to not good in strike rotation against spinner as could be seen in some of the test innings. This could become problem in the middle order period specially against off-spinners. Hope Rishabh to find a solution for this issue. No one doubts his capability to play big shots though.

Spinners select them selves at this stage, and Jadeja has come back to contention as spin bowler all-rounder. Seam bowling all-rounder that will be much needed in England will definitely be Hardik Pandya and he is yet to recover from the injury occurred during Asia cup.

Another major thing India need to find before the WC is the backup Fast bowlers - with Bhuvi and Bumrah being the first choice bowlers for that spot. I had vouched for Shami and Umesh Yadav to be those bowlers after the failure of Shardul Thakur, Siddharth Kaul to grab those spots.  Hopefully both Shami and Umesh will do well in this series to confirm their spots. Khaleel Ahmed is also excellent option (being a left armer) and this series will provide him enough chances to grab that spot.

So overall expecting this series to be lot closer than Test series, and Indian team to get still competition and also find some solutions their middle order problems.