IND vs WI 2022: Predicting India's middle order in the first ODI

News of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul likely to miss out on India's limited series tour of the West Indies spells bad news for the visitors. While Jajeda could miss out so as not to risk his knee injury, Rahul has tested positive for Covid-19.

However, this opens up a slot for another player to make a case for himself and throw his hat in the ring. India will use these games to nail the perfect squad for the 2023 World Cup.

With Jadeja set to sit out due to a niggle in his knee, India will have to look at a player to be named vice-captain, while also tweaking their middle order. Should Jadeja indeed miss out, Rahul Dravid and skipper Shikhar Dhawan might look to slot Axar Patel into his place.

Or will they go for a batting-heavy unit? Ahead of the first game at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad on Friday (July 22), we take a shot at predicting the visitors’ middle-order combination.

India's middle order is perhaps their second challenge with Jadeja likely to miss the ODI series. With Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav in the mix, they will most likely take up the No. 3, 4, and 5 positions. There is also the possibility of India likely adding Sanju Samson to lend the necessary depth to the side.

This, however, would mean playing Shardul Thakur as the lone all-rounder at No. 7 and also giving Samson a rather unusual position to bat at.

The second option is to bring in Axar Patel into the fold using Thakur at No. 6. Here's what the line-up looks like in both scenarios.

Middle order combination #1

Player	Position
Deepak Hooda	No.3
Shreyas Iyer	No.4
Suryakumar Yadav	No.5
Sanju Samson	No.6
Shardul Thakur	No.7

Middle order combination #2

Player	Position
Deepak Hooda	No.3
Shreyas Iyer	No.4
Suryakumar Yadav	No.5
Shardul Thakur	No.6
Axar Patel	No.7

The Men in Blue will likely look to strike a balance. Hence, they might mostly go with the second combination with either Ruturaj Gaikwad or Ishan Kishan to open at the top. The second combination also gives the likes of Thakur and Patel a chance to showcase their finishing prowess.

Predicted playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal.