By the Cric Info 365 Desk | September 27, 2026
India start as clear favourites in the IND vs WI 1st ODI prediction. The game is at Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram, on Sunday, September 27, 2026, with the first ball at 2:00 PM IST. Our call is a 65 to 35 edge for India. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are back, and Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav should get help from this surface later in the day. The gap is smaller than the rankings suggest, though. India are missing Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, and they have dropped their last few ODI series.
This preview covers the likely XIs, the venue’s short and strange ODI history, the records that could fall today and a fantasy team built around this pitch. For dates and venues of all three games, see our West Indies tour of India 2026 schedule and squad guide.
Match Snapshot: IND vs WI 1st ODI at a Glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Match | India vs West Indies, 1st ODI |
| Series | West Indies tour of India 2026, 3 ODIs |
| Date | Sunday, September 27, 2026 |
| Toss | 1:30 PM IST |
| Start | 2:00 PM IST |
| Venue | Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala |
| Captains | Shubman Gill (India), Shai Hope (West Indies) |
| Next games | 2nd ODI, Sep 30, Guwahati; 3rd ODI, Oct 3, New Chandigarh |
The big picture matters here. This series opens India’s home ODI season, and every ODI India play from now until late 2027 is effectively a trial for the World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. West Indies have a different target. They sit tenth in the ICC ODI rankings, cannot qualify automatically, and are using this tour to toughen up before the qualifiers early next year. So one side is picking a World Cup squad, and the other is trying to reach the World Cup at all.
What Time Does the IND vs WI 1st ODI Start in Your Country?
| Region | Start time |
|---|---|
| India (IST) | 2:00 PM |
| Pakistan (PKT) | 1:30 PM |
| UK (BST) | 9:30 AM |
| Caribbean (AST) | 4:30 AM |
| US East (EDT) | 4:30 AM |
West Indies fans at home face an early alarm. The match is an afternoon start in India, so the second innings runs into the evening. That timing matters for the toss, and we come back to it later.
Why Is India Missing So Many Regulars for the 1st ODI?
This is the question most fans are asking, and the answer is simple once you see the calendar. India are running two senior national teams at the same time. While Gill’s ODI group plays in Kerala, a separate T20 squad under Shreyas Iyer is in Japan for the Asian Games. That squad includes Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Arshdeep Singh. They are seeded straight into the quarterfinals, which start on September 28. You can follow that campaign on our Asian Games 2026 cricket hub.
Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana are out for a different reason. Both are still in injury rehab. Losing Hardik hurts the most, because he is the only natural seam bowling all rounder India have in fifty over cricket. Without him, Nitish Kumar Reddy gets a run in that role. He can bat in the top seven and bowl six or seven overs of seam, but he is not yet a banker for ten.
The upside is that a thin squad means real auditions. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal both want a World Cup spot. Two uncapped players, batting all rounder Naman Dhir and Jammu and Kashmir seamer Auqib Nabi, are in an ODI squad for the first time. For fans who follow India’s white ball depth, our India squad news and injury updates page tracks who is fit and who is not.
What this means today: India’s batting is close to full strength, but their bowling is a B plus unit. That is where West Indies can find a way in.
What Has Greenfield Stadium Told Us About ODI Cricket?
The 2018 Collapse and the 2023 Run Fest
Greenfield International Stadium opened in 2015 and holds around 50,000 people, yet it has staged only two men’s ODIs. Both were lopsided, and they pointed in opposite directions.
- November 1, 2018, India vs West Indies: West Indies chose to bat and were bowled out for 104 in 31.5 overs. Jadeja took four wickets. India knocked the runs off in under 15 overs and won by nine wickets.
- January 15, 2023, India vs Sri Lanka: India batted first and made 390 for 5. Kohli scored 166 and Gill 116. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 73, and India won by 317 runs, the biggest margin of victory in ODI history.
So is this a bowler’s pitch or a batting paradise? The honest answer is that it rewards whoever uses the first hour better. In List A cricket the average first innings total here is only about 201. That tells you the 2023 total was the outlier, built on two batters settling in and cashing in.
Pitch Report for the IND vs WI 1st ODI
Expect a surface that is decent for strokeplay while the ball is new and hard, then slows down. Spinners get more grip as the afternoon goes on, and batting under lights has been harder than batting in the sun. This fits India’s two main spinners, Jadeja and Kuldeep, very well. On the West Indies side it suits Gudakesh Motie’s left arm spin and Roston Chase’s off spin.
A par score looks like 280 to 300. Anything above 310 batting first should be very hard to chase down.
Will Rain Affect the Match?
AccuWeather puts the rain chance at around 25 percent, and Thiruvananthapuram has had showers in the days before the game. Toss time should be bright and hot, in the low 30s Celsius, with humidity building later. A full washout looks unlikely. A short delay or a Duckworth Lewis Stern adjustment in the second innings is possible, which is one more reason to bat first.
IND vs WI ODI Head to Head: What Does 47 Years of History Say?
India and West Indies first met in an ODI in 1979. Since then they have played 142 times.
| Record | Number |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 142 |
| India won | 72 |
| West Indies won | 64 |
| Tied | 2 |
| No result | 4 |
| Matches in India | 61 (India 32, West Indies 28) |
| Last bilateral series | 2023, India won 2 to 1 in the Caribbean |
Those overall numbers look close, but they hide a clear split. West Indies won most of the early meetings in the 1980s and 1990s. In the modern era India have taken over. India have not lost a bilateral ODI series to West Indies since 2006, which is 13 straight series.
West Indies still pull off wins now and then. They won the middle game of the 2023 series. In India in 2018, they tied at Visakhapatnam and won in Pune. So an upset is rare but not unheard of.
Top Run Scorers and Wicket Takers in IND vs WI ODIs
| Record | Player | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Most runs | Virat Kohli (IND) | 2,261 runs, average 66.50 |
| Most hundreds | Virat Kohli (IND) | 9 |
| Second most runs (active) | Rohit Sharma (IND) | 1,613 runs in 36 matches |
| Most sixes | Rohit Sharma (IND) | 35 |
| Most wickets | Ravindra Jadeja (IND) and Courtney Walsh (WI) | 44 each |
| Highest individual score | Virender Sehwag (IND) | 219, Indore, 2011 |
| Highest team total | India | 418 for 5, Indore, 2011 |
| Best bowling | Anil Kumble (IND) | 6 for 12, Kolkata, 1993 |
The table shows how lopsided this rivalry has become. Kohli has averaged over 66 against one opponent across more than 40 games. That is not a hot streak but a pattern over more than a decade. Rohit’s 35 sixes point to something similar. The West Indies attack has often bowled too full at him, and he cashes in with the pull and the loft over long on.
The Jadeja and Walsh tie is the most interesting line. Walsh was one of the great fast bowlers of the 1990s. Jadeja has matched him with left arm spin, and mostly in the era of two new balls and flat pitches.
Milestones on the Line in Thiruvananthapuram
- Virat Kohli is fewer than 60 runs away from 15,000 ODI runs. Only Sachin Tendulkar has got there before, and Kohli would be the fastest to do it. Two more hundreds would also give him the most international centuries against West Indies.
- Rohit Sharma needs 105 runs for 12,000 ODI runs. He comes in after a 138 at Lord’s in July.
- Ravindra Jadeja needs one wicket to become the sole leader for most wickets in IND vs WI ODIs, on the ground where he took four against them in 2018.
IND vs WI Squads for the 2026 ODI Series
India: Shubman Gill (captain), KL Rahul (vice captain, wicketkeeper), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi
West Indies: Shai Hope (captain, wicketkeeper), John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Jewel Andrew, Amir Jangoo, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Justin Greaves, Keemo Paul, Matthew Forde, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales, Gudakesh Motie, Vitel Lawes
Two teenagers in the West Indies squad deserve a closer look. Vitel Lawes, a 19 year old wrist spinner, has taken 8 wickets in 5 ODIs since his debut in July. Jewel Andrew, also 19, is a wicketkeeper batter who has been recalled with the World Cup qualifiers in mind. Neither may start today, but a young leg spinner on a surface that turns later is exactly the kind of pick a captain reaches for in the next game.
IND vs WI 1st ODI Possible Playing 11
India Possible Playing 11
| No. | Player | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rohit Sharma | Opening batter |
| 2 | Shubman Gill (c) | Opening batter |
| 3 | Virat Kohli | Top order batter |
| 4 | Ruturaj Gaikwad | Middle order batter |
| 5 | KL Rahul (wk) | Wicketkeeper batter |
| 6 | Nitish Kumar Reddy | Seam bowling all rounder |
| 7 | Ravindra Jadeja | Spin bowling all rounder |
| 8 | Kuldeep Yadav | Wrist spinner |
| 9 | Mohammed Siraj | Fast bowler |
| 10 | Prasidh Krishna | Fast bowler |
| 11 | Gurnoor Brar | Fast bowler |
The one real selection call is number four. Gaikwad is the likely pick because he can bat long, but Jaiswal is an option if India want a left hander in the middle against the off spin of Chase. Gurnoor Brar, a tall seamer from Punjab, gets the nod over Auqib Nabi for his extra bounce.
West Indies Possible Playing 11
| No. | Player | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Campbell | Opening batter |
| 2 | Amir Jangoo | Opening batter |
| 3 | Keacy Carty | Top order batter |
| 4 | Shai Hope (c, wk) | Wicketkeeper batter |
| 5 | Roston Chase | Batting all rounder |
| 6 | Sherfane Rutherford | Middle order hitter |
| 7 | Justin Greaves | Seam bowling all rounder |
| 8 | Keemo Paul | Seam bowling all rounder |
| 9 | Alzarri Joseph | Fast bowler |
| 10 | Shamar Joseph | Fast bowler |
| 11 | Gudakesh Motie | Left arm spinner |
West Indies have picked this XI to bat deep, with Keemo Paul at eight. That reflects their recent series defeats to New Zealand and Sri Lanka, where the lower order kept folding. The trade off is that they have only two front line spinners on a pitch where a third could have been useful.
Which Matchups Could Decide the IND vs WI 1st ODI?
Shai Hope vs Kuldeep Yadav. Hope is West Indies’ best batter by a distance, with over 6,300 ODI runs. His record in India is strong too. At Visakhapatnam in 2018 he made 123 not out and hit a four off the last ball to tie the match. A few days later he scored 95 in the win at Pune. He plays spin late and off the back foot, which is the best way to face Kuldeep. If Hope bats 35 overs, West Indies will post a real total. If Kuldeep gets him early, this could be over by the halfway mark.
Rohit Sharma vs Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph. Both Josephs hit the pitch hard, and Shamar showed at the Gabba in 2024 what he can do with a hard new ball. Rohit sometimes starts slowly against short, fast bowling. The first six overs are West Indies’ best chance to strike at the top.
Sherfane Rutherford vs Jadeja at the death. Rutherford is the one West Indies batter who can take 50 runs off the last five overs. Jadeja usually bowls his tenth over in that stretch, and his flat, fast darts are hard to hit for six. Whoever wins this contest probably decides whether West Indies finish on 260 or 300.
Kohli vs the West Indies spinners. With the 15,000 mark this close, expect Kohli to rotate the strike and bat deep. Motie’s left arm spin turning away from him in the middle overs is the one plan that has troubled him in recent years.
IND vs WI Dream11 Prediction: Best Fantasy 11 for the 1st ODI
This fantasy side is built for a pitch that helps spin later and a game India should control.
| Role | Players |
|---|---|
| Wicketkeepers | Shai Hope, KL Rahul |
| Batters | Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma |
| All rounders | Ravindra Jadeja, Roston Chase, Nitish Kumar Reddy |
| Bowlers | Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Alzarri Joseph |
Team split: India 8, West Indies 3.
Captain and Vice Captain Picks
- Captain: Virat Kohli. He has the best record of any batter in this fixture, the milestone gives him a reason to bat long, and he usually bats at three through the middle overs. That is where fantasy points pile up.
- Vice captain: Ravindra Jadeja. He is a safer pick than a pure bowler. He bowls ten overs on a turning pitch, bats at seven, and adds fielding points. One wicket also makes history.
Differential Picks for Grand Leagues
- Roston Chase: He is picked by few users, bowls ten overs of off spin and bats in the top five. On this surface he is the West Indies player most likely to score in both halves of the game.
- Gurnoor Brar: If India bowl first, a tall debutant hitting the deck with a new ball can take early wickets, and his low selection rate makes each wicket worth more.
- Small league swap: Replace Nitish Kumar Reddy with Sherfane Rutherford if you expect West Indies to bat first, since his death overs hitting can outscore a sixth bowler.
Fantasy sports involve financial risk and can become habit forming. Play for fun and within your own limits.
Toss Prediction: Bat or Bowl First?
Our pick: whoever wins the toss should bat first. Three things support that. First, the pitch slows down and grips more as the day goes on, so the side batting second faces its hardest spells in the worst conditions. Second, with the 2:00 PM start, any rain delay is more likely to affect the second innings, and chasing a revised target is always harder. Third, the one big total at this venue, India’s 390 in 2023, came batting first.
The counter point is the 2018 game, where West Indies batted first and collapsed. That result was about their batting on the day, not a toss advantage.
IND vs WI 1st ODI Prediction: Who Will Win the Match?
| Factor | Edge |
|---|---|
| Top order batting | India (Rohit, Gill, Kohli) |
| New ball bowling | Even (Siraj vs the two Josephs) |
| Middle overs spin | India (Kuldeep and Jadeja) |
| Death overs hitting | West Indies (Rutherford) |
| Venue history | India (two wins from two ODIs) |
| Recent form | Even (both have lost recent series) |
| Squad depth today | India, but less than usual |
Prediction: India win the IND vs WI 1st ODI. Win chance: India 65 percent, West Indies 35 percent.
The reasoning is mainly about spin. India have two top class spinners who suit this surface, and West Indies’ best batters will face 20 overs of them in the middle of the innings. A West Indies win needs two things at once: a big innings from Hope and early wickets from the Josephs before Kohli settles.
Here is one angle that gets little attention. India’s run of series defeats against Australia, New Zealand and England means Gill is under real pressure as captain for the first time. A home loss to the tenth ranked side would turn that noise into a proper debate. Expect India to play with a bit more caution than usual, especially early in the chase if they bowl first.
Where to Watch IND vs WI 1st ODI Live
In India, the match is on the Star Sports network on TV, with live streaming on JioHotstar. For live scores and the scorecard, follow ESPNcricinfo’s match page. For team rankings before and after the series, the ICC ODI team rankings are the official source. Squad changes during the series will appear first on the BCCI website.
If you want more fifty over cricket this month, our ODI Tri Nation Series in UAE 2026 schedule covers the other ODI series running alongside this one.
IND vs WI 1st ODI FAQs
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Who will win the IND vs WI 1st ODI 2026?
India are favourites, with our prediction giving them a 65 percent chance. Their batting is almost at full strength, and Jadeja and Kuldeep should get turn later in the day. West Indies need a big innings from Shai Hope to upset them.
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What time does the India vs West Indies 1st ODI start?
The toss is at 1:30 PM IST and the first ball at 2:00 PM IST on Sunday, September 27, 2026. That is 1:30 PM in Pakistan and 9:30 AM in the UK.
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Where is the IND vs WI 1st ODI being played?
It is at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The ground has hosted just two men’s ODIs before this one, and India won both by big margins.
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Why are Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya not playing?
Bumrah is in Japan with India’s T20 squad at the Asian Games, along with Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana are still in injury rehab.
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What is the IND vs WI head to head record in ODIs
The two sides have played 142 ODIs. India have won 72 and West Indies 64, with 2 ties and 4 no results. India have won 13 bilateral ODI series in a row against West Indies since 2006.
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Who has scored the most runs in India vs West Indies ODIs?
Virat Kohli, with 2,261 runs at an average of 66.50, including 9 hundreds. Rohit Sharma is next among current players with 1,613 runs.
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Who has taken the most wickets in IND vs WI ODIs?
Ravindra Jadeja and Courtney Walsh are level on 44 wickets each. One more wicket today would give Jadeja the record outright.
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Who is the best Dream11 captain for IND vs WI 1st ODI?
Virat Kohli is the strongest captain pick, given his record against West Indies and his role at number three. Ravindra Jadeja is the best vice captain because he scores points with bat, ball and in the field.
Final Word
The IND vs WI 1st ODI prediction points to India, but this is not the usual lopsided home fixture. India’s bowling is short of its best, Gill is under pressure after several series defeats, and Shai Hope has already shown he can win games in India. Watch Kohli’s charge to 15,000, Jadeja’s shot at a record on the ground where he dismantled West Indies in 2018, and whether a pitch that slows through the day backs up the call to bat first.
While this series runs, India’s other senior team is chasing a medal in Japan. Our Asian Games 2026 cricket schedule and squads page has the full picture of both campaigns.
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