The Windies are all set to tour India for 2 tests, 5 ODIs and 3 T20s. With the Asia Cup 2018 ending, India doesn’t have much of a break in between the two series and will get back straight into action.
The India vs Windies series is not just an ordinary bilateral series. With the World Cup coming closer and closer every single bilateral series – no matter who it is played against is going to be important for India. Also, with every new series coming up for India, the selection debate is getting equally intense.
The two huge points to look out for the limited overs series against India is the comeback of Virat Kohli into the team, who was rested for this Asia Cup after the long England tour; and the squad balance of youngsters and experienced players into the team. With this tour, a new ground at Lucknow is all set to host a T20 between both these teams for the first time.
India should be looking to achieve step by step milestones based on upcoming tours. A long-term thinking of the World Cup is a good idea but it should not affect the current series as well. This tour should be looked upon as pure experimentation where India has an opportunity to try out a bunch of players that they are interested to involve them in the squads.
With the selection debate going on one side, we have batsmen like Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal piling on runs in the domestic tournaments and capitalizing opportunities to show that they are ready to be a part of the Indian squad.
Hardik Pandya getting injured earlier in the Asia cup will have to recover quickly in order to be a part of the Windies series and it’s not going to be easy for him to bounce back for the Indian team.
Last but not the least, the no. 4 spot has to be taken very seriously by the potential players ahead of the tour of Australia and should be given a look from a long-term perspective especially for the World Cup.