Sarwan, Bravo, Pollard return for Windies

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Boosted by the return of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, and Kieron Pollard, West Indies will be looking to take advantage of depleted World Champions India in the first One-day International at Queen's Park Oval today.

Sarwan, Bravo, and Pollard could have made all the difference in the series-opening Twenty20 International on Saturday at the same venue, as West Indies unsuccessfully chased 160 for victory, losing by 11 runs.

They should give a more solid look to West Indies' batting in the first ODI that India will play, since they won the World Cup on home soil two months ago.

"It's nice to have those three experienced players back in our side," said West Indies captain Darren Sammy.

"We have a bit of momentum with our one-day side after that series against Pakistan, so hopefully we can exploit that."

Sarwan's sheer class, along with Bravo's and Pollard's familiarity with the opposition, having just returned from the Indian Premier League, should help West Indies overcome their inhibitions against spin bowling.

Their opponents are armed with Harbhajan Singh, one of the best in the world, as well as fellow off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Yusuf Pathan, both capable of subtle varieties that can bamboozle the best batsmen.

"Desmond Haynes has been working hard with the batsmen," said Sammy. "They are slowly getting better at it, and we hope they will translate that hard work in the nets out in the middle.

"It's about confidence, and having belief in yourself against spin. You have to use your feet against the spinners. They are working hard."

groundsmen criticised

At the same time, Sammy criticised the groundsmen around the Caribbean for failing to produce the kind of pitches that would give more assistance to the home team's fast bowlers, allowing them to exploit the weaknesses of batsmen brought up on docile tracks in the sub-continent.

"We had the same experience against Pakistan [in the recent home series," said Sammy.

"Even then the pitches supported them. It's a home series, but it feels like ... the pitches are out of our control. We can only ask what we want, but it's up to the groundsmen to prepare it.

"We have requested bouncy pitches, but as I said we don't prepare the pitches."

India are not expected to make massive changes to their line-up from the side that won the T20I.

There were a few hiccoughs in their top-order batting, but they would back themselves to get over them, and some of the less recognised players will use this chance to make a name for themselves.

The spinners will be their main bowling strength, but the likes of Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel offer steady, line-and-length, medium-fast bowling that could add to the pressure on the Windies' batsmen.

Squads:

WEST INDIES (from): Darren Sammy (captain), Carlton Baugh Jr, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Kirk Edwards, Anthony Martin, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons.

INDIA (from): Suresh Raina (captain), Harbhajan Singh (vice captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramaniam Badrinath, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary.