Kingston, June 23: The Indian team sports a distinctly depleted look in absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, but West Indies captain Chris Gayle said he would not make the folly of underestimating the visitors in the forthcoming four-match ODI series starting on Friday.

After arriving here from England along with Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor and Xavier Marshall, Gayle said India may be without some of the star players but West Indies would do well not to take them lightly. "It is never a walkover against India. There are a lot of guys still there to give us a lot of trouble, so we just have to stick to the game plan and make it a successful one," Gayle said.

The hosts themselves have seen quite a few changes in their squad with pace spearhead Fidel Edwards missing the tournament with a back injury.

The West Indies selectors added Darren Bravo, younger brother of Dwayne, in the 13-member squad in which Runako Morton and Narsingh Deonarine replaced Lendl Simmons and Kieron Pollard. "There are a few changes in the squad, there is Darren Bravo and Deonarine coming in and it is a good opportunity for them to play an important part against India," Gayle said.

Senior batsman Sarwan also agreed that even a depleted India would prove a difficult challenge for the hosts in the series.

"The Indians are a very good one-day team and while they may be without a couple of their players, they will prove to be a handful for us," Sarwan said.

"But we are in good form and have confidence in our abilities and hopefully, beginning Friday, we can get a good start to the series," added Sarwan.

On his personal form, the right-hander said, "I don’t think I have too much problem with my form, it’s just unfortunate in the 20/20 game you don’t have too much overs. But apart from that, I am pretty confident and I am hitting the ball well."

Gayle, meanwhile, was proud of the West Indies’ performance in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship. "It was a pretty decent performance. We tried our best but in the end it was not to be. But I am not disheartened. In fact, I am proud of the guys, as at the championship, not many were expecting us to reach that far," said Gayle. — PTI