West Indies were unable to land a blow on India in the recently concluded Test series and now they will try their luck against the same opposition in an ODI series which gets underway at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Thursday.
This would have been billed as a warm up for the World Cup which begins in three months except the home side failed to make it so that script went out of the window. It still holds true for the tourists though as they prepare for a challenge on home soil.
West Indies
This has been a really poor extended period of time in 50 over cricket for West Indies. It would have been unthinkable that there would have been a World Cup which didn’t include them 10 years ago but since then there has been a decline that has culminated in them watching on when the tournament gets underway in India. As a neutral you would like to think this is the rock bottom that everything builds up from for West Indies but time will tell on that one.
There was probably always going to be a drop off from West Indies when a powerful era of stars hung up their boots but they should still be doing better than they are. They can’t seem to find a top six that can churn out the amount of runs needed or that can build some continuity. I don’t think they are bad with the ball in certain conditions but until they sort out their batting order this is a side who are going to continue to struggle.
India
I wouldn’t say that the build-up to the World Cup begins here for India because they have been doing that previously but they have a good series here and then the Asia Cup to come so this is the time things perhaps get a little more serious for them in terms of their focus towards the World Cup. They will be expected to dominate this series after the struggles that West Indies have run into in recent times, as they will be expected to win the World Cup on home soil, so that pressure could be helpful.
India are usually very strong with the bat in this format even though they perhaps lack that powerful finishing all-rounder that many other sides have in their ranks. Their bowling has left a bit to be desired in recent times but they have never really been able to get their key bowlers on the park because of injury. Once again they will be without some bowlers who will be automatic picks come the World Cup if they are fit so it will be interesting to see what the support cast offer here.
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Team News
West Indies have Shimron Hetmyer and Oshane Thomas back in their ranks and both are expected to feature in this match but Jason Holder misses out on his home ground. Nicholas Pooran and Keemo Paul are unavailable.
India will be without Jasprit Bumrah once again so it will be a couple of second string seamers on show here. They need to decide whether to play a third seamer or an extra spinner. That pick might be between Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur.
Betting
We have just seen a Test match which had a bunch of sixes in it and the Kensington Oval is usually good for some too and I fancy that to be the case in this match. There was a time where India were perhaps not the biggest hitting team in the world but with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja in their engine room that is no longer the case. West Indies are always clean hitters of a cricket ball regardless of the format or the opposition.
The sixes line for this match is 11.5 which looks low when West Indies and New Zealand played out a match on this ground last year which had 21 sixes in it. West Indies are under pressure to start performing in this format of the game and I expect them to come out fighting with an aggressive attitude here. Whoever wins the World Cup on good pitches in India later in the year will need to clear the ropes a lot and this is good practice for India to begin to do that. I like the over.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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