Can the Windies find a win against India?

Having been whitewashed by India 2-0 in the Test Series, the West Indies cricket team must now find a way to regain some momentum as they face India in a 5-match One Day International series (ODI) which starts on Sunday, October 21, at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
With one day remaining before the series opener, West Indies must select the perfect 11 if they are to have any chance of beating India. The team will have the services of veteran player Marlon Samuels, who will be playing his 200th ODI. He has amassed 903 runs against India, and requires 97 more runs to reach a milestone of 1000 in India.
The Windies will also have their most experienced pacer, Kemar Roach, back in the line-up, and there will also be skipper Jason Holder, who, with 64 scalps in the bag, has been the leading wicket-taker in ODIs since the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
The Windies squad features three uncapped players in Guyanese opener Chandrapaul Hemraj, all-rounder Fabian Allen, and pacer Oshane Thomas, which does not change its status as an inexperienced side.
In the last ODI series versus India, in 2017, the Windies lost 3-1. The last time the Windies sealed an ODI series win was against Bangladesh in 2014, when they won 3-0.
Even though the Windies have experienced players, the team can still be considered a weak team with the absence of Gayle, Pollard, the Bravo brothers and Narine.
Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer will definitely be looking to put their disappointing performances at rest and vindicate their endorsement as the future of Windies’ batting.
But two players cannot make all the runs in the team. Windies cricket in general is seemingly in a downward spiral, with batting in the Tests not troubling the Indian bowlers, and WI bowling not troubling the hosts’ batting.
Windies must work fast to rectify these flaws, or they will face another humiliating series’ loss. Each player on the team must know his role(s) in the team, and not depend on the big names alone to score, but the players must rather play as a unit if they want to have a fighting chance.
Meanwhile, Indian captain Virat Kohli will be looking to score big, as he only needs 187 more runs to become India’s leading run scorer against the West Indies, and he needs only 221 more runs to become the fastest to 10,000 ODI runs.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan will each pose a threat, as these two dominators average close to 50 against the Windies. The pair requires only 39 more runs to pass the Tendulkar/Sehwag combination and become India’s second most successful opening pair. (Timothy Jaikarran)