The build-up to India vs West Indies Pool B battle on Friday has been far from ideal. An unwanted fall out between Virat Kohli and an Indian journalist has shifted focus away from the battle on the field.

Hopefully, the face-off has ended with BCCI stepping in to officially warn Kohli for his misbehaviour, and both the parties have moved on - because there's a World Cup in progress, which the players have to play and the scribes have to report.

The battlefield at the WACA has some interesting lines drawn: (a) India enjoy a 4-3 scoreline in World Cup head-to-head, (b) It will be the first meeting between the two since the Windies left India tour midway and (3) It will be interesting to see how India counter the Chris Gayle threat.

The Jamaican left-hander announced himself with a record double-hundred against Zimbabwe. It was fastest of the five ODIs have witnessed until now and more importantly broke a string of low scores from Gayle's bat go hush the big man's critics.

West Indies, though, would not want to be labelled as one-man army. Like against Ireland, where they scored 300, Jason Holder would want his batsmen to stand up even if Gayle fails. That they lost to the Irish despite posting 300 plus is a story for another day.

That loss still haunts Windies, who are in a three-way battle for two remaining quarter-final spots from Pool B as with three wins each, India and South Africa are virtually through to the last-eight stage.

West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland all have won two games so far - with the Irish team having a game more in hand having played only three matches so far. That leaves the Windies and Pakistanis with no more scope for slip-ups, especially against a minnow if they lose all their matches to fellow Test nations in the pool.

India will be happy to have Mohammed Shami back available for selection after missing out against the UAE to a knee injury. He should walk back into the XI in place of Bhuvneshwar, who still doesn't appear 100 percent despite looking close to full fitness in the five overs he bowled against the UAE.

The Indian contingent was lucky to survive another injury scare on Thursday, when Mohit Sharma was hit on the right hand in the nets but x-rays cleared him of any injury. He was later declared available for Friday's fixture.

Besides Shami, it's hard to see India making any change to their eleven, with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja enjoying bowling in tandem, Rohit Sharma back among runs in the last match and rest of the pieces also nicely falling in place.

The chief point of discussion in India's team meetings before the game must be how to handle Gayle. And one option Dhoni, Ravi Shastri and Duncan Fletcher must have mulled is opening the bowling with Ashwin.

Ashwin is not new to that role, except that he has hardly done it in limited-overs cricket and on foreign soil. Also needs to be taken care of is that he's bowling so effectively in the middle overs, and should Gayle handle the offspinner than the other way round, we might have results similar to when Kohli was dropped to No. 4 during the tri-series preceding the World Cup.

A contrasting theory borders around the success of New Zealand offspinner Dipak Patel, who was asked by his skipper Martin Crowe to open the bowling during the 1992 World Cup. But that was 23 years back. Considering the size of the bats, tweaked rules and the game loaded heavily in favour of the batsmen, the tactic needs to be properly weighed upon before being put into use.

Also, India can ill-afford focusing only on Gayle with Dwayne Smith due for a big one and Marlon Samuels equally damaging on his day, as the right-hander showed in his world record 372 run stand against Zimbabwe. Samuels scored a century in that mayhem.

The Windies bowling shouldn't be a problem for India to handle with most in the Indian batting line-up in sharp form. Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell are nowhere near the legendary league of West Indies pacers before the turn of the century.

Having said that, it's a new day and a new game. Both teams will know and be well advised to not touch the complacency lines.