1st ODI: India vs. West Indies - India Loses Stars Ahead of Series

With the Twenty20 World Cup now out of the way and Pakistan crowing about their “world champion” title for another two years, the business of somewhat real cricket can resume.

Before the 2009 Ashes betting starts in England in July, sports fans can enjoy a four match one-day international series between West Indies and India starting on Friday.

The bookmakers have installed India (-140) as favourites to win the first match of the series against the West Indies (Even).

That is all good and well if it wasn’t for the small fact that the West Indies was indeed hosting the series.

On home soil, the Caribbean crusaders are a force to be reckoned with while away from home, they are fragile at best.

The Kingston match, due to start at 2.30pm, will be without some big names in the India squad however it appears predicted conditions should be good with temperatures in the range of 26 to 30 degrees Celsius, which will help the West Indies’ quicks no end.

It will also mean that India’s swing bowlers will become null and void setting up an intriguing battle in the first of four matches.

The question still remains though, how good are India away from home and without their two star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag?

Sehwag was absent for most of the T20 World Cup, which threw their campaign of kilter while Tendulkar holds that rare talismanic quality which can make an opposition team quiver at the sound of his name.

Despite losing two world class players, India still sports an impressive line up for the series including Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, MS Dhoni and Ishant Sharma, enough to give the West Indies trouble on home soil.

The hosts on the other hand will be buoyed by an impressive T20 campaign, which saw them reach the semi-finals before crashing out unceremoniously to finalists Sri Lanka by 57 runs.

That all means nought now as the game is extended back to a reasonable 50 overs a piece as opposed to the bastardised 20 over version.

They have all their top line players fit and well, they are playing at home in their own conditions and they are in a rebuilding phase that could lead them to bigger and better things in the long term.

The series also looks tighter than what the bookmakers will have you believe and although a drawn series (+220) is the likely outcome a West Indies win is paying good dividends at +275 while India looks a safe bet at –120.