Ravindra Jadeja was not his miserly self in the first ODI and may pave the way for chinaman Kuldeep Yadav’s comeback in the team.West Indies

Despite the early departure of Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma ensured that the outcome of the 323-run chase was hardly ever in doubt. But the skipper and head coach Ravi Shastri would know that they won’t prevail everytime they concede a big total. Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was left out of the starting XI in Guwahati, but with the same 12 named again, he may get a look-in at Visakhapatnam as the Windies have traditionally struggled against the back-of-the-hand stuff.

Ravindra Jadeja was not his miserly self in the first ODI and this could pave the way for the reunification of the wrist-spinning jugalbandi of Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal.

In the absence of pace spearheads Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as well as the injured Shardul Thakur, it is an audition of sorts for the rest of the pace options. Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav would like to make amends after a wayward start on Sunday and left-arm paceman Khaleel Ahmed would hope for another opportunity to press his case.

On the batting side of things, the problem is that the dominance of the top three has prevented the others from getting a meaningful hit, which may work against the team in more significant matches. Ambati Rayudu has been named by the team management as their preferred choice for the No.4 spot, but he needs time in the middle before a final call can be taken on him.

MS Dhoni too has had few significant innings of late, and though his place for the 2019 World Cup is all but assured, the team management needs the former skipper to find a second wind.

On the positive side, Kohli is just 81 runs to reach the 10,000-run mark in ODIs, and become the quickest to reach the milestone. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record, having reached 10,000 in 259 innings, while Kohli has so far batted 204 times.

The visitors did well to compile 322 in Guwahati, but according to skipper Jason Holder, par scores in ODIs in India could be closer to 350, especially for a team which does not boast of a potent bowling attack.

Shimron Hetmyer showed in the first game what he is capable of with a whirlwind hundred after opener Kieran Powell provided a flying start. But the Windies will hope that their seasoned campaigners, including the enigmatic Marlon Samuels, to come to the party. The seasoned Jamaican, who impressed Steve Waugh on his Test debut, made a duck in Guwahati. He is known as a big match player but at 37, his best days are clearly behind him, but the Windies would still want something substantial from him leading up to the World Cup.

To add to their worries, the experienced Kemar Roach and the rookie tearaway Oshane Thomas caused a few anxious moments at the start of the Indian chase, but Kohli and Rohit soon found their stride and dealt with them with utter disdain.

Holder, who was one of the few bright spots in a dismal Test series for the Windies, was relatively economical but could not prevent a batting onslaught. Ashley Nurse has been quite effective with his off-spin in the middle overs, but he had hardly bowled to better batsmen of spin than Rohit and Kohli. Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo has been around for a long time, but his control is nowhere near it needs to be at this level. He did get Kohli stumped with a leg-break, but that was after the Indian skipper had smashed his way to another ODI ton. Bishoo bowls a lot of rubbish – long hops, full tosses and half-volleys – in between the rare good balls.