Kohli & Co. to take on Windies in opening ODI

Port of Spain [West Indies], June 23 (ANI): India will aim to put all on-field controversies regarding their head coach Anil Kumble's exit to rest when they take on West Indies in the opening ODI of the five-match series at the Queen's Park Oval here on Friday. India would arrive in West Indies following their heart-wrenching 180-run defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan in the finals of the recently-concluded Champions Trophy at the Kennington Oval on June 18. The Jason Holder-led side, on the other hand, would lock horns with India, following a drawn three-match ODI series against Afghanistan 1-1. West Indies, who are standing at the ninth spot in the ODI rankings, failed to gain any point from the series against Afghanistan. As a result, the upcoming series against the Men in Blue would be their last realistic chance to try to get those ranking points up in a bid to qualify automatically for the 2019 World Cup-where only the top eight ranked teams are guaranteed qualification. Meanwhile, India will be without Anil Kumble who stepped down from the position of head coach which he took up last year following Champions Trophy. The Virat Kohli-led side will be with general manager Dr M.V. Sridhar to supervise the team management for the West Indies tour. Meanwhile, Sanjay Bangar, and R Sridhar, will continue to remain the batting coach and the fielding coach, respectively. As far as squads are concerned, India had picked Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik and Kuldeep Yadav for the upcoming series, while the Caribbean side will be without fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who is still recovering from an injury. The two squads are as follows: India: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, R Jadja, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Dinesh Karthik . West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Devendra Bishoo, Jonathan Carter, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shai Hope (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammad, Ashley Nurse, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell and Kesrick Williams. (ANI)