With big names missing, it will be interesting to see how West Indies perform at the World Cup. (Source: AP)

The only team to have an fairly inexperienced team. Given that the selectors led by Clive Lyod didn’t pick Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard, and Sunil Narine pulled out due to his action, West Indies could be in their worst phase as an ODI team.

Strengths:

Big hitters: They will fight it till the very end and they have done it on many occasions. In Andre Russell and Darren Sammy, they have the cleanest and most powerful hitters. Russell exhibited his skills in a narrow one-wicket win over South Africa in the 4th ODI recently hitting a 40 ball 60* after they were 76/5.

Right from the opening pair Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith to the middle order compromising of Samuels, Russell, Sammy and Holder. For them the required run-rate is never too high.

Out of 13 ODIs in 2014, they won 7 and lost 6. Most wins were unconvincing but were because of their big hitters.

Weakness

Opening: The team depends on the openers but the form of Gayle and Smith has not given West Indies the start they would like. Gayle only played three ODIs in 2014 while his partner played seven. The third opener Lendl Simmons played nine matches and scored 262 runs at an average of just below 30. This makes it a three-way battle for the opening spot. It will be interesting to see which pair West Indies play.

Inexperience bowling: Bravo was the highest wicket-taker for West Indies in 2014 followed by Ravi Rampaul. Both of them are not in the WC squad. Though WI have Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor and Suliemaan Benn, their bowling looks inexperienced. Seaming all-rounders in Sammy and Russell will help but they will miss the services of Narine.

They have a relatively young team (or the selectors say so) with an average age of 29. They are led by Holder who is 25-year-old. Jonathan Carter and Sheldon Cottrell were yet to make their debut for West Indies before they were picked.

This all seems negative for them but for once West Indies will think that they have nothing to lose. Forget that they are a team in trouble. Forget that they don’t have the best team and forget that they are not the favourites. West Indies, on any given day, can knockout the best in the competition.