India’s new white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma starts his full-time ODI tenure on Sunday as his team play the West Indies in their 1,000th one-day interna-tional, the first side ever to reach the milestone.
The encounter at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad is the first of a three-match series but will be played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
India passed 500,000 deaths from the virus on Friday, although infection rates in the current Omi-cron outbreak have slowed in recent days.
“I was the captain of India in the 500th ODI,” India’s cricket chief Sourav Ganguly told Indian magazine Sportstar—a 2002 game against England in Chester-le-Street.
“It is a big moment for Indian cricket, but unfor-tunately, the match will be played without a crowd.”
The hosts have been hit by the virus themselves with four players including Shikhar Dhawan, Shre-yas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad being isolated after testing positive.—APP
