IND vs WI ODI Series 2026: Team India will face West Indies in a three-match ODI series starting Sunday. The 1st IND vs WI ODI will be played at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram from 2 p.m. IST onwards. With this series, the Shubman Gill-led team will begin its final leg of preparations for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Indian team will likely play at least 15 ODIs ahead of the global showpiece, and they would want to make each one of them count. The focus will be on batting superstars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who are going to play their last ODI World Cup for the country.
There has been constant chatter around Rohit Sharma's place in the playing XI, and the former captain will look to hit the ground running to silence his critics. On the other hand, Virat Kohli, who is the master of the ODI format, will be eager to score 51 runs to become the second batter to score 15,000 ODI runs after Sachin Tendulkar.
The absence of several first-choice players like Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah will allow the management to try out new players.
The West Indies will need to put behind them the disappointment of losing consecutive home ODI series to New Zealand and Sri Lanka by close margins. The last time they won an ODI series in India was back in 2002 when Carl Hooper was the captain and Darren Sammy believes that it is time to break the jinx.
"It's been 24 years, we've not won a series here in India," Sammy said ahead of the first game.
"It's a great opportunity for us as a team to come out here and challenge ourselves and measure up ourselves as to where we are in ODIs," news agency PTI quoted the two-time T20 World Cup-winning former skipper as saying.
"It's a great opportunity for us, the players that we have, to come and put in a good show against India and look to win a series, something we've not done in 24 years," the former all-rounder said.
The first ODI of the three-match series between India and West Indies will be telecast live on the Star Sports Network TV channels.
The live streaming of the 1st IND vs WI ODI will be available on the JioHotstar app and website.
India's ODI team: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (VC), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Auqib Nabi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Naman Dhir.
West Indies' ODI team: John Campbell, Shai Hope (C and WK), Keacy Carty, Sherfane Rutherford, Justin Greaves, Amir Jangoo, Matthew Forde, Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph, Jewel Andrew, Vitel Lawes, Keemo Paul.