Dhawan makes a comeback

With an air of invincibility, India return to the format that gave them a heartbreak in the not-too-distant past, facing West Indies in the first of three-match ODI series here on Thursday.

Shikhar Dhawan makes a comeback in the format where he has been India’s third best player after skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma.

With 17 hundreds in 130 ODIs, Dhawan will rightfully take his place at the top of the order alongside Rohit and like the initial matches of the World Cup, KL Rahul is likely to go back to being the number four batsman.

With Kedar Jadhav expected to come in at No 5 or 6 depending on how Rishabh Pant is used as a floater, it will be a toss up between Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer for the remaining middle-order slots.

With Bhuvneshwar Kumar playing three T20 Internationals in a week across two countries, he will probably get to cool his heels with Mohammed Shami leading the attack and Navdeep saini making his ODI debut.

Thoroughly outplayed in the shortest format, West Indies will hope the return of the talismanic Gayle bolsters them. Gayle during the World Cup had announced that the home series against India will be his last.

Left-handed opener John Campbell, Roston Chase and all-rounder Keemo Paul have all been recalled to the 14-member squad for the matches which will be contested at the Guyana National Stadium on Thursday, and on August 11 and 14 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.