West Indies head coach Daren Sammy sees the ODIs against India as an opportunity to see where his team stands in the format.
“It’s been 24 years, we’ve not won a series here in India,” Sammy said ahead of the first game on Sunday.
“So it’s a great opportunity for us as a team to come out here and challenge ourselves and measure up ourselves as to where we are in ODIs. And I think it’s a great opportunity for us, the players that we have, to come and put in a good show against India and look to win a series, something we’ve not done in 24 years.”
The West Indies have to play the qualifiers early next year after missing out on automatic qualification.
“If you have to win a major ICC event, especially in the white-ball format, you have to beat India,” he said. “And we playing them here at home in their conditions and performing well and winning gives us a fair idea as to what we could do as a team and how capable we are in competing on the world stage.
“Heading into the qualifiers in February, you know, that is our No. 1 focus… continuing to fine-tune the team so that when we go to the qualifiers, we put ourselves in a position to book our ticket to South Africa.”
Sammy, however, sees encouraging signs in the team’s progress.
“Shai Hope is not the only one scoring hundreds. We’ve got hundreds from different players… Amir Jangoo, the way he’s played, we’ve seen a glimpse of Sherfane (Rutherford). I think in 2024-2025, we were looking for that type of form. Alzarri Joseph is back bowling well.”