It seems like the Indian cricket team brought the rains from England along with them to West Indies as the first One Day International was called off without even a full innings being completed. What started as a hot day in Trinidad ended up producing a damp squib with just under 40 overs completed out of a possible 100.

Virat Kohli’s men followed the template that’s worked more often for them than not in One Day Internationals while batting first – start slow, preserve wickets, go big at the death. Of course, as it turned out, the death never came.

From what little action that we saw at the Queen’s Park Oval, here are three talking points.

Ajinkya Rahane’s disappointment

It’s odd to call a return to ODIs with a solid 62 off 75 balls to be a disappointment. But Rahane should consider this as a chance missed to make a big statement. With Virat Kohli backing him to open the batting in all five matches in the series, Rahane’s spot is under no immediate danger, of course. But after getting his eye in, playing some delightful square drives and straight drives, Rahane threw it away – not for the first time, mind you – by failing to read a slower ball. The mode of dismissal and the timing of it – coming at the halfway stage of the innings – must irk Rahane. With Rohit Sharma’s return to form, and KL Rahul’s performances in the recent past, Rahane has already slipped down the pecking order and a 62 against a pedestrian bowling attack on a placid pitch does not really scream “I am back.” He needs to convert the starts into big scores, to make himself a headache of the good kind for Kohli.

Shikhar Dhawan’s resurgence

68 125 78 46 21 and 87. Those are Dhawan’s scores in the last six ODIs, since the beginning of Champions Trophy. A good run of form is on the verge of becoming a purple patch. On Friday, he once again showed the authority that makes him such a dangerous batsman – the six to get to his 50, being the standout shot. It was a length ball angling away, he got into position early, and swatted it over fine leg. Disdain. Whisper it, but we are not far away from Dhawan making himself undroppable.

Yuvraj Singh’s failure

Making 4 runs off 10 balls with a strike rate of 40 is not how Yuvraj would have wanted to mark his 400th international appearance, as mathematically symmetrical as it is. The questions are getting louder with every passing match that Yuvraj fails to deliver, batting at that important number 4 slot. Rahul Dravid said the selectors need to take a call on whether Yuvraj, along with MS Dhoni, are part of the team’s plans for 2019 and if not, youngsters need to be blooded in. His return of just over a 100 runs in the Champions Trophy, thanks mainly to a dropped catch against Pakistan, and a failure to begin with in West Indies, mean that his place is under the most scrutiny right now. He doesn’t have anything left to prove to anyone and we all know he will go down as one of the greatest match-winners in our history, but his place in the side can’t be guaranteed by past performances. Yuvraj needs big scores and he needs them now.