Daren Sammy to assess West Indies' ODI progress in series against India

The Caribbean side missed out on automatic qualification for the 2027 ODI World Cup and will have to get to the global showpiece via the qualifiers early next year.

"It's been 24 years, we've not won a series here in India," Sammy said. "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.

"If you have to win a major ICC event, especially in the white-ball format, you have to beat India 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."

Even though they did not qualify directly into the World Cup, Sammy still sees encouraging signs in how the West Indies are progressing.

"The reality of the situation (is) we've not made it," Sammy said. "However if we have to look back as to where we were and what we've been able to achieve as an ODI team, we've made some strides.

"Missing automatic qualification by six points, starting from where we were back then, which was, I think, 19 or 20 points behind, and accumulating those points, I thought we made a lot of strides in making a claim to automatic qualification.

"Shai Hope is not the only one scoring hundreds. We've gotten 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, just helped Antigua win a CPL title. So yes, we want to give everybody an opportunity in those three games."