India vs West Indies, 1st ODI: Rain plays spoilsport as Indian cricketers train indoors

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Port of Spain, July 21: India is set to take on West Indies in the first ODI of the three-match One Day International series, set to get underway in the Port of Spain (Trinidad) on Friday (July 21).

On the eve of the match, the Indian cricket team was forced to train indoors with rain lashing parts of Trinidad.

Along with captain Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian team sweat it out at an indoor training facility.

Speaking in a video posted by BCCI on Twitter, India opener Shubman Gill said the team expected better weather following their England series, but it was good to get some training in rather than have no session at all, ahead of the series opener.

"As we have just come from the UK, we thought that it would be nice to have an (outdoor) practice session. But it started raining. So, it's always better to have a knock in the indoor facilities rather than having no session," opener Gill said in a video posted by BCCI.

"It was a good session as we got to do some specific things like playing underarm balls. I am feeling great and we all are really excited and really buzzed about these three ODIs. We feel that it would be a good series," added Gill.

Skipper Dhawan alongwith other batsmen spent some time at the nets, while young pacer Arshdeep Singh rolled his arms. Dhawan, who had earlier led India to Sri Lanka for an ODI series last year, is leading the side in the abscence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma.

Following India's away series at England, regular captain Rohit Sharma, senior batsman Virat Kohli, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, who led India in the rescheduled fifth Test against England, and Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the Windies series.

With most of the seniors being rested, it has opened a window of opportunity for the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan to get some game time under their belt and make their presence felt.

Squad:

Team India: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.