India vs West Indies: With 2-1 ODI series win, Men in Blue get clearer picture of their ideal World Cup combination

After being served a rude wake-up call in the form of a six-wicket defeat at the hands of the West Indies on Saturday, Team India bounced back in style with a commanding 200-run victory in the third and final ODI in Tarouba on Tuesday

What was expected to be a closely-fought series finale between the two sides at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium, especially in the aftermath of Shai Hope and Co’s fightback in the second one-dayer, instead turned into a drab, one-sided contest from the moment openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill set the ball rolling with a fiery start.

The Men in Blue would go on to post a massive 351/5 on the board riding on half-centuries from Gill (85) and Kishan (77) as well as from stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya (70) and Sanju Samson (51).

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West Indies, who for a change had dominated the Indians in all the departments in Bridgetown on Saturday, were off to the worst possible start thereafter as Mukesh Kumar struck twice in his first two overs of the day and removed in-form skipper Hope later in his spell to break the backbone of the West Indian batting.

All-rounder Shardul Thakur then carried on from the initial damage caused by Mukesh, collecting 4/37 as the hosts were bundled out for a meagre 151, with the trio of Alick Athanaze (32), Gudakesh Motie (39) and Alzarri Joseph (26) helping the home team get past the 100-mark in the end.

The lopsided victory not only helped them take the three-match ODI series against the Windies 2-1, having won the series opener by five wickets before copping an upset defeat in the subsequent clash, but it also helped the Rohit Sharma-led side get a clearer picture of what their combinations for the Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup will be like.

The ODI series, after all, was something of an audition for a number of World Cup hopefuls to prove their worth ahead of the big-ticket events.

Skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli hardly batted in the series opener at the Kenginston Oval and were rested in the subsequent matches, in order to ensure maximum game time for players hoping to cement their spots in the side. Pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj, meanwhile, had flown back home at the end of the Test series as the BCCI decided to exempt him from the white-ball fixtures.

Coach Rahul Dravid had insisted the Men in Blue were running out of time as far as experimentation was concerned, and made it clear results in this series were secondary. India after all, are desperate to end an ICC trophy drought that stretches back to 2013, and will be hoping to deliver a title on home soil later this year, for which they cannot afford to have any passengers in their squad.

As we arrive at the conclusion of the ODI series against the West Indies, we take a look at the players who have made the most of the opportunities in this series and have boosted their hopes of World Cup selection, and those who left a lot to be desired:

Who’s in

If there’s a player who well and truly stood out in the three ODIs, it’s opener and wicketkeeper-batter Kishan, who scored a half-century in each outing. If there’s one thing clear from this series, it is that Kishan will be part of the team’s plans going forward. And the kind of form that he is in at the moment, the Men in Blue sure can depend on him to bail them out of tight corners more often than not.

The 25-year-old, after all, finished as the leading run-scorer in the three-match series with 184 runs at an impressive average and strike rate of 61.33 and 111.51 respectively, bagging the ‘Player of the Series’ award in the process.

Kishan played freely on a good batting surface in Tarouba and was the aggressor in the 143-run opening stand with Gill on Tuesday that set the tone for the series decider. He was equally impressive on a tricky pitch at Barbados in the first two ODIs, with Gill’s 34 being the next best score across those two games.

While it will be difficult for Kishan to be accommodated at the top of the order, where Gill has already established himself as a first-choice opener alongside Rohit with Kohli coming in at No 3.

Where Kishan bats in the middle order will depend primarily on the fitness of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, who currently are recovering from a back and a thigh injury respectively, and are racing against time to get fit for the big events.

As for the bowling department, which managed to shoot the West Indians out for scores of 114 and 151 in the first and third one-dayers, all-rounder Shardul Thakur and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav have stood out with eight and seven wickets respectively.

Read | ‘I always play to help the team win, not seal a World Cup spot’: Shardul Thakur

Kuldeep was especially unplayable in Barbados during the first ODI and his performances in this series have been a continuation of what has been a good year for him so far, and the 28-year-old Uttar Pradesh spinner might just have solidified his case for a second consecutive World Cup appearance.

The ones who are unlikely to make it

Skipper Rohit and coach Rahul Dravid persisted with Suryakumar Yadav in the XI in all three ODIs and SKY batted at various positions throughout the series — No 3 in the first ODI, followed by Nos 5 and 6 in the second and third.

His returns from the series, however, aren’t very promising, and the Mumbai Indians batter has only made it difficult for the team leadership and the selection committee to persist with him going forward. Surya faced 25 deliveries each in the first two ODIs, scoring 19 and 24 respectively, and was relatively better with his 30-ball 35 on a belter of a track at Tarouba on Tuesday.

But the manner in which Kishan conducted himself in this series, as well as the possibility of Rahul and Iyer returning to fitness in the next month makes his chances of making his ODI World Cup debut this year increasingly slim.

Though he had a horror series against Australia earlier this year, scoring a hat-trick of ducks in the three ODIs, and had a slow start in the IPL, he eventually managed to regain his form a few matches into the 16th edition of the cash-rich league and had hit peak form in the latter stages. If there ever was a chance for Surya to carry his T20 form over to the ODIs, this was it.

Samson, meanwhile, managed to make up for a blip in the second ODI, where he managed just 9 off 19 deliveries and was subsequently trolled for the same, with an aggressive 51 off just 41 balls that contained two fours and four maximums and bore the stamp of a player who would be the ideal candidate for the role of an enforcer in the Indian middle order.

As skilled a batter as he is, Samson’s biggest hurdle towards cementing a permanent spot in Team India has been his consistency, or the lack of it for that matter. And though he managed to cross fifty on Tuesday in what would normally be considered a knock as impressive as any, Samson might just be left feeling he needed more on the board for him to make a more compelling case.

As for the bowling department, Mukesh Kumar has got his ODI career off to a decent start with four wickets at an average and economy of 17.25 and 4.60. But with Jasprit Bumrah making his way back after a prolonged absence and likelihood of him reuniting with Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj in the World Cup, it appears Mukesh will have to wait for some time and keep performing in bilateral contests before getting the nod for the bigger events down the road.