(ESPN) West Indies head coach Daren Sammy sees the ODIs against India as an opportunity to see where his team stands in the format, while also attempting to end a two-decade wait for a bilateral series win in the country.

“It’s been 24 years, we’ve not won a series here in India,” Sammy said ahead of the first game on Sunday. “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.”

With West Indies set to play the ODI World Cup qualifiers early next year after missing out on automatic qualification for the 2027 tournament, Sammy also views this three-match series, starting in Thiruvananthapuram, as an important part of the team’s preparation.

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

West Indies missed out on automatic qualification for the next ODI World Cup. Only the top eight – besides co-hosts South Africa – qualify directly and they are at No. 10. Even a clean sweep against India will not be enough to overturn the deficit, which means West Indies need to go through the qualifiers for the third successive time.

Sammy, however, sees encouraging signs in the team’s progress, particularly that match-winning contributions are coming from several players rather than just one or two.

“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.”

Sammy was also pleased with the emergence of wristspinner Vitel Lawes. The 19-year old made his ODI debut against New Zealand in July and picked up eight wickets in five games.

“Vitel, to me, he’s a find for us. What we saw in him that caused him to debut against New Zealand was all part of the planning and the processes we put in place. You’ve heard me for years talking about a wristspinner in the West Indies team. And Vitel, he came in and he immediately had an impact on the bowling unit for us. Still got a long way to go but we will continue with his development through either playing games or the specific work we’ve put in place for him. He’s worked really well with Nikita Miller and Ravi Rampaul here on tour. So yes, we’ll continue creating those opportunities for him and hopefully he could continue to grow. A little bit fast-tracked but we’re pleased with what he’s done so far.”