… First game on today at Providence stadium

WEST INDIES will turn their attention to a friendlier format when they take on India in the first of three One-Day Internationals starting today at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

The home series has been a bleak one so far for the hosts, having suffered a 3-0 whitewash in the preceding T20 series but they will be banking on their strength in order to make amends.

Thoroughly outplayed in the shortest format, West Indies hope the return of the talismanic Chris Gayle will bolster them. Gayle during the World Cup had announced that the home series against India will be his last.

Left-handed opener John Campbell, Roston Chase and all-rounder Keemo Paul have all been recalled to the 14-member squad for the matches which will be contested today, and on August 11 and 14 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago.

During a pre-match press conference yesterday at the Providence stadium captain Jason Holder said his team will be looking for an improved performance, adding that India will definitely come hard at them.

“We want to put the World Cup behind us now and hope for an improved performance in this ODI series,” Holder said.

On the other hand, India return to the format that gave them a heartbreak in the not-too-distant past, but the Men in Blue are said to have an upper hand over the hosts, given West Indies’ pathetic run in the 50-overs format in past years and their ICC ranking.

India are placed only below current world champions England in the ICC team ODI rankings while West Indies are 9th in the list, better placed only than newcomers Afghanistan and Ireland.

West Indies haven’t won a bilateral ODI series since August 2014. They also haven’t beaten India in their last eight series against them. Chris Gayle needs 11 runs to go past Brian Lara as West Indies’ leading run-scorer in ODI history while Virat Kohli is 19 runs shy of pipping Javed Miandad as the player with the most ODI runs against West Indies.

Match-time is 09:30hrs.

West Indies squad: Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, John Campbell, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Roston Chase, Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas and Kemar Roach.

India squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wkp.), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed and Navdeep Saini.