Greaves and Campbell punish India's reshuffled attack in the Thiruvananthapuram opener

Justin Greaves and John Campbell have taken the first hour of the ODI series away from a reshuffled India attack in Thiruvananthapuram

West Indies reached 111 for 0 after 16 overs of the first ODI at the Greenfield International Stadium, the opening pair untroubled after Shubman Gill won the toss and put them in.

Greaves, promoted to open, had moved to 56 from 44 balls at the 15-over mark, with Campbell on 42 from 41 alongside him. The stand had passed a hundred inside the first fifteen overs.

India, in their first home fixture of the season, took the field without Mohammed Siraj and handed a first international cap to Naman Dhir.

An opening stand India cannot break

West Indies scored at close to seven an over through the powerplay and did not slow when the field went back, taking the score past a hundred without losing a wicket.

Greaves was the more severe of the two. He took four boundaries from Nitish Kumar Reddy's first over, and reached his fifty in the 14th.

Campbell answered when Gill turned to spin inside the first ten overs, driving Ravindra Jadeja for boundaries in an over that cost 16.

Keacy Carty and Hope are still to come, with Roston Chase and Alzarri Joseph behind them, so West Indies have batting in reserve for the back half of the innings.

Gill backs a chase under lights

Gill's reasoning at the toss was the surface rather than the opposition. "We are gonna bowl first, looks like a decent surface. Will come better under the lights, so want to chase," he said.

He described the side as carrying "four bowlers and two all-rounders", and framed the series as a chance to settle a combination with the 2027 World Cup approaching.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both return to the XI and will bat in the chase Gill asked for, their first innings of India's home season.

An attack without Siraj

Siraj's omission left Prasidh Krishna to open the bowling, with Gurnoor Brar the other seamer and Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja the specialist spinners.

Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya are absent from the start of India's run to the World Cup, so the seam and all-round work falls to a group with far less international cricket behind it.

Reddy and Dhir make up the two all-rounders Gill referred to, which leaves India four front-line bowling options and little room if one of them is taken apart.

Naman Dhir gets his first cap

Dhir, 26, received his cap from Gill before the toss. He plays his domestic cricket for Punjab and has been with Mumbai Indians since the 2024 IPL season.

His call-up followed a Sher-e-Punjab T20 season for Amritsar Soormas in which he made 655 runs in 10 matches at an average of 72.78 and a strike rate of 217.61, including 173 from 64 balls.

His List A record is slighter — 351 runs in 14 matches with a highest score of 97 — and this is his first appearance in a 50-over international.

What West Indies want from the tour

Shai Hope would have batted had the toss fallen his way. "Well, it (toss) does not really matter now, does it? We would have probably batted today," the captain said.

Hope pointed to a quick turnaround from the Caribbean Premier League and a change of format, but said the side had been playing well: "just about for us now to come to India and try to replicate that."

West Indies are building towards the 2027 World Cup qualifiers, and a start of this kind against India, in India, is the sort of evidence they have had little of recently.

At the time of writing: West Indies 111 for 0 (16 overs) v India, 1st ODI, Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram

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