West Indies vs India, 1st ODI - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Aaaaand the rain is back...

It's pouring this time. LOOOOONNNNG night ahead folks.

Low, slow... and grim viewing so far...

Chris Gayle's LARA MISSION is not going to take off too easily here. The ball is stopping on the pitch (which Gayle hates) and Shami and Bhuvneshwar are frustrating him further by not pitching the ball up for him to swing across the line.

India also missed out on an opportunity to add to the wickets column when an LBW decision against Evin Lewis wasn't reviewed by the bowling side. That was probably because Shami bowled from around the stumps, but replays showed the ball would struck the leg stump. West Indies have 8 for 0 in 5 overs and Gayle's on 3 off 18 balls (no kidding!)

Chris Gayle watch...

He's 11 away from surpassing Brian Lara to become the leading run-getter for West Indies in the 50-over format. Can he get it today?

BREAKING NEWS elsewhere : Hashim Amla has announced his international retirement! Here's more on that...

TEAM NEWS:

India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed

TOSS: India opt to bowl in 43-overs-a-side affair

Update

The sun's out...

Rain has stopped here, but the covers are still on. Not long before we start losing overs though...

The frustrating rain game...

It's stopped, it hasn't, oh it has, dang, it's back! That's what's happening in Guyana right now. So stay tuned...

Stock up on some popcorn or maybe alternate plans - it's raining in Guyana and the toss is delayed!

As we wait, you could read our Preview, which describes this ODI series right after the World Cup, as an offering of a cold like an offering of a cold sandwich out of a vending machine with soggy fillings.

Prelude - India, West Indies, ODI and context

You can only put three of those four words together to make a coherent sentence right now. For there is no real context to the 50-over contest that kicks off the three-match ODI series today. You could still spin it around saying they can begin Mission 2023, but even that has been quashed by Virat Kohli - saying it is too early to look that far. So what really does this series hold, interspersed between the two formats that actually are relevant now - the T20Is were key considering there's a World T20 to be played next year while the two-Test series will be India's first in the Test Championship.

But that said, in the absence of a grand picture to this series, there could still be sub-plots worth looking forward to...

What to expect...

It's 2019 and India's No.4 issue still remains that. But at least now there won't be as much spotlight on it, since there's no big 50-over tournament coming up. And yet it'll be interesting to see what happens at two-drop for India - KL Rahul goes back there? Manish Pandey or Shreyas gets a second chance?

Also to note will be Kedar Jadhav's future. He's 34, injury prone and wasn't a very active part of the side during the World Cup. It's a bit of a surprise then that he's part of this squad. Interesting to see in which direction his future heads.

For West Indies, there's Chris Gayle. He did a retirement U-turn and now nobody knows for how long he intends to play on. As far as statisticians are concerned, there's great interest in his call - he's 11 short of becoming the leading run-getter for West Indies in the 50-over format, surpassing the great Brian Lara.