Despite India's successful title defence at the T20 World Cup earlier in the year and their win at the Asian Games, it has been a pretty grim in bilateral series.
India were blanked by Ireland and England in T20s in their backyard across six completed matches, while the West Indies further exposed the weaknesses in India's T20 armour, levelling the T20 series 2-2 on Saturday.
New captain Shreyas Iyer has had a rough start to his reign, although he has an Asian Games gold medal to show for his efforts.
Generally, bilateral matches do not count for much outside a World Cup cycle. But there is an incentive this year for teams to maintain their standards - qualification spots for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
LA 2028 Olympics qualification scenarios
Cricket is returning to the Olympics after well over a century. As expected, T20 is the chosen format.
However, just like at the Asian Games, there are limited spots available, even though there are many competitive teams in world cricket. Japan recently came within two runs of defeating double world champions India.
A total of six nations will compete in the men’s and women’s T20 competitions, with at least one team each from Asia, Europe, Oceania and Africa. Hosts USA are also set to get one of the spots.
The women's section has largely been locked in, with Australia, Great Britain (England), India and South Africa qualifying by virtue of being the highest-placed eligible finishers at the end of the women's T20 World Cup earlier in the year.
However, the criteria is different for the men's side. The highest-ranked teams from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania on December 31, 2026, will qualify for LA 2028.
England are the top-ranked T20 team and would have qualified even if they weren't as there are no other European teams in the top 10.
South Africa (ranked fifth) too are certain to be through as their next closest challengers Zimbabwe (12th) are well behind in T20 rankings.
Oceania sees a tougher battle between Australia and New Zealand, ranked third and fourth respectively but separated by a substantial 13 ranking points.
In Asia, India look most likely to qualify automatically for the LA Olympics despite their recent struggles. India are ranked second in the world while their closest continental challengers Pakistan are sixth.
However, there is a massive gap of 27 points between the two. India have five T20s against New Zealand and three against Sri Lanka remaining in the 2026 calendar.
Even if they lose every single match, India will still only go down to third - according to the ICC's rankings predictor - and remain out of reach for their neighbours.
India, therefore, are almost certain to qualify for the 2028 LA Olympics T20s directly, especially since Pakistan have no T20 match scheduled for the rest of the year.
However, the team in green can still make it to the Olympics. One final spot at the LA Olympics will be decided via a qualifier, where Pakistan might have to fight teams like New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The West Indies will have a separate Games pathway. If the Windies gain automatic qualification spot via rankings by the end of the year, there will be a dedicated qualifier event to determine the Caribbean nation which will then feature in the Olympics qualifier.
