Beating India in India has always been a tough ask. Not long ago we had a record of 18 successive wins in one-dayers but the story has totally changed in the last one year.

Agreed that coach Chappell had his strategy of experimenting to find the right combination but where have these experiments led us to? If we assess team India’s performance– in the early part of the year, the team won five out of seven games against Pakistan, and six out of seven against England.

It started the West Indies tour with a win in the first ODI. Then came the losing streak, where we lost 12 of the next 15 games (not counting one no-result).

In marked contrast, the West Indies hit a winning streak. Overall, the West Indies played 33 games in 2006, winning 18 and losing 14. After that famous Bravo-inspired win in Sabina Park, the Windies hit a purple patch, winning 11 of the 17 games it played till year end.

This time, it is the West Indies who start favorites, following its turnaround in fortunes; it is India that wears the `underdog’ tag, following its reverses first in the West Indies, and more recently the 4-0 drubbing in South Africa.

For starters, both the teams know each others strength and weaknesses. The West Indies will be looking to fine tune its World Cup squad; India, by contrast, is still trying to identify its team, following the loss of form of several key players.

With just 8 ODIs remaining between now and the World Cup to get it right, India has a lot of thinking to do: on the identity of its opening combination, on the question of Virender Sehwag, on whether VVS Laxman should find a place in the ODI squad, on whether Anil Kumble should be first choice spinner in the shortened version of the game, on who the three seamers should be.

What India needs to do in this series is the million dollar question that many of us might be thinking. Where does the team go from here?