A buoyant India will take on a struggling West Indies in a two Test series beginning Thursday, October 2, 2025, at Ahmedabad, with World Test Championship (WTC) points on the line.
Fresh from a hard-fought 2-2 draw in England, Shubman Gill's men will be eager to translate their overseas resilience into home dominance.
For India, this series is critical for their WTC campaign. Currently third on the table with 46.67 percentage points, they need commanding wins in their coming home fixtures to consolidate their position.
Ranked sixth, the West Indies come into the series on the back of a 3-0 drubbing at home against Australia, including a morale-shattering collapse for 27 runs in the final Test.
Historically, the rivalry has tilted the West Indies' way, with 30 wins against India's 23 in 100 Tests. 47 matches have ended in stalemates. But the recent past has been a one-way traffic.
On the West Indies' last trip to India in 2018, they were soundly thrashed by Virat Kohli's men in both Tests.
This will be India's first Test series at home without the talismanic trio of Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. With memories of a 0-3 thrashing at home at the hands of New Zealand last year, still fresh, Head Coach Gautam Gambhir will have to lift his team mentally, even if it's a depleted opposition.
Captain Shubman Gill is in the form of his life in red-ball cricket, having raked in 754 runs in 10 innings with an impressive average of 75.40 in England, including four centuries. And on India's placid tracks, there will be more in store from him.
K L Rahul, who scored a truck load of runs in England, and fashioned India A's chase against Australia A last week with an unbeaten 176, will be crucial at the top of the order.
His opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal will have fond memories of the Windies, having scored 266 runs in three innings in two Tests in his debut series in the Caribbean in 2023. Also, given he had decent match practice in the recent Duleep Trophy semi-final where he scored a half century (64) for West Zone, his confidence will be certainly high going into the Ahmedabad Test.
Sai Sudharsan, who didn't get a consistent run in England, will be India's No. 3 and the 22 year old will want to use this opportunity to cement his place in that spot.
The selectors rang in a mild surprise by recalling Devdutt Padikkal to shore up the middle order and he could bat at either 4 or 5, given those are his usual slots in domestic cricket.
With the Motera track known to be batting friendly with a likelihood of drying out as the match progresses, it will be toss up between all-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Axar Patel.
In red hot form, Kuldeep Yadav is an automatic pick and is likely to bowl alongside Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, who could make the Playing XI for the variation he provides.
Given all the workload talk, the option of Jasprit Bumrah, who featured in three of the five Tests on the England tour and subsequently the Asia Cup, will be weighed before toss time on Thursday.
And if he doesn't get roped in, Prasidh Krishna will partner Mohammed Siraj, who comes back to international cricket after a much deserved break.
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