Team India has been constantly on the run since the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) ended. The Indian team started with a T20I home series against South Africa. After that, they played a single Test match against England followed by a three-match T20I series and 3 match ODI series. India ended up losing the one-off Test match but later won the ODI and the T20I match. The Indian caravan has now reached West Indies, where they are scheduled to play 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is. Once India is done with the Caribbean trip, they will take on Zimbabwe and move to the Asia Cup. With strong voices opposing ICC's busy schedule and all the discussions around workload management, the Indian team is constantly on the run as they look to determine a core group of players for the ICC T20I World Cup scheduled to be played in Australia later this year.
With the senior players and the superstars of Indian cricket rested, Shikhar Dhawan has been handed over the captaincy of the Indian team and he will lead the men in blue in the 3 match ODI series scheduled to begin on July 22, 2022. The Indian players had reached the Caribbean island, but just before they could hit the nets, rain played a spoilsport. The continuous downpour forced the Indian team to train indoors ahead of the first ODI against the West Indies here on Friday. Led by the veteran Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian bowlers and batters sweat it out at the indoor training facility here as rain lashed parts of Trinidad.
"As we have just come from the UK, we thought that it would be nice to have an (outdoor) practice session. But it started raining. So, it's always better to have a knock in the indoor facilities rather than having no session. It was a good session as we got to do some specific things like playing underarm balls. I am feeling great and we all are really excited and buzzed about these three ODIs. We feel that it would be a good series", Said Shikhar Dhawan.
The series has opened a window of opportunity for the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan to make their presence felt.A notable inclusion to the side is opener KL Rahul, who is all set to play the first ODI. The 30-year-old batter got injured before the T20I series against South Africa in June this year.
Squads:
India: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.
