India vs West Indies ODIs talking points: Rohit Sharma’s approach, Kuldeep Yadav’s playing XI spot and the all-rounder conundrum

India resumes its preparations for next year’s ODI World Cup in South Africa with a three-match ODI series against the West Indies, beginning on Sunday in Thiruvananthapuram.

The series begins a stretch of bilateral fixtures that Shubman Gill and Co. will play for the remainder of the year. Having beaten Afghanistan and lost to England and New Zealand already this year, India hosts the West Indies before facing Sri Lanka and New Zealand again later this year.

Its bench strength will come under closer scrutiny over the next week. With several first-choice players unavailable through Asian Games duty and injury, the selectors have been forced to turn to some newer faces for these three matches.

Even with several first-team names missing, these matches will offer the Indian team management another opportunity to firm up its World Cup plans.

The Rohit question

It seems an awfully long time ago that Rohit Sharma responded to rumours of retirement after India’s third ODI against England with a blistering 138, albeit in an ultimately unsuccessful chase.

Some reports have suggested that the retirement talk stemmed from discord with chief selector Ajit Agarkar. With Agarkar now likely on his way out of the role, any discussion of Rohit going anywhere can perhaps be parked for now.

But the secondary question remains: how does Rohit choose to approach his role as an opener now? Since the 2025 Champions Trophy, the 39-year-old has made two sparkling centuries, against England and Australia, in 15 innings, but also has eight scores below 30.

More notably, he has scored at a run-a-ball or slower in all but one of those innings, a far cry from the front-foot PowerPlay aggression that characterised his game in the preceding two years. The West Indies series thus offers another indication of the role Rohit and the team management have carved out for him over the coming 12 months.

Alongside Rohit, things are fairly settled in India’s top three. Shubman Gill, the no.1 ranked ODI batter, will open alongside him, while Virat Kohli has shown no signs of slowing down at number three with only four scores of less than fifty in 12 innings post the Champions Trophy.

All-rounder conundrum

India enters this series without almost all of its first-choice all-rounders. Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana are currently recovering from injury, while Axar Patel and Washington Sundar are in Aichi-Nagoya for the Asian Games.

In the England series, with Hardik, Harshit and Nitish Kumar Reddy similarly absent and Washington sustaining an injury in the second match, India leaned on Shivam Dube to fulfil the seam-bowling all-rounder role for the first two games.

However, in the final match, it opted for four genuine pacers, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav, and gambled on a longer tail.

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s recall from the Asian Games squad almost guarantees him a place, while the dearth of spin options should see Ravindra Jadeja get the nod too.

Beyond that, Auqib Nabi’s inclusion is an interesting one given that he has shown himself to be a capable batter. He hit 114 not out from 82 balls in last year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy. A good showing in both disciplines could make him an attractive package going forward.

Will Kuldeep play?

Kuldeep Yadav’s regular absence from the Indian side has been a cause for concern in recent times. He went through all eight matches of India’s white-ball tour of England without an appearance. But with Jadeja the only other recognised spinner in the squad, Kuldeep seems almost certain to feature at some point in this series.

His last international appearance came in the first Test of India’s tour of Sri Lanka, where he took just one wicket from 25 overs. That match was sandwiched between two strong stints for Yorkshire, during which he took a combined 20 wickets in eight appearances across the One-Day Cup and County Championship.

Published on Sep 26, 2026