Sriram Singh Rattan
India look favorites at home in the two-test series starting October 4th
Prelude
BCCI has announced it would experiment with bouncier pitches at home and use the India A tour of New Zealand as preparation for the tour of Australia as India play down under next month. Though not openly said, India has been presumed a winner of the two test rubber with West Indies.
West Indies
Not to disrespect the visitors but India just are very strong at home. West Indies simply lack the spin strength to trouble India even on great turn. Neverhteless, West Indias have a formidqable batting attack too as visible by their victory in England chasing 322.
Since the Rajkot track is not the moist turning tracks in India, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope and Roston Chase can collectively make it difficult for the Indian bowlers. Also, Shimron Hetmeyer and Sunil Ambris have shown promise and hence India should not take the windies lightly.
India
Before the tough tours to Australia and New Zealand, time has come for the Indian batsmen to switch on their stealth mode. Since India has dropped both non performing openers M Vijaw and S Dhawan, it could be a moment to shine for the newbie’s Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agrawal and KL Rahul too to prove their mettle. If they play well, they might be seen riding all the way to Australia and NZ.
As far as Virat Kohli is concerned, he wants the top order to settle before the long tour down under. He remarked “Apart from the top order getting cemented, I don’t think with these two Test matches there is a lot to look for. It’s just that at the top of the order, these guys are new and will take a bit of time to get into it. They definitely have the skill set and are supremely talented and the rest of the team is quite settled.
After the South Africa and England drubbing, the middle order will finally breathe easy and the focus shifts to the spinners as they look to make life difficult for the Caribbean batsmen. India have named a 12-man shortlist on the eve of the Test. With Prithvi Shaw debuting, the team is playing just the five specialist batsmen. The choice remains between a third spinner and a third fast bowler. There could be two debuts on Thursday if India picks three quicks as Shardul Thakur features in the twelve.
Probable Squad
India
1 KL Rahul, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Kuldeep Yadav/ Shardul Thakur
West Indies
1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Sunil Ambris, 5 Shimron Hetmeyer, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Keemo Paul, 10 Devendra Bishoo, 11 Shannon Gabriel
Pitch and Conditions
News is that the organisers want a longer contest when it comes to Test cricket. It is rumored that BCCI’s curators have flown in to try to replicate the bounce the batsmen will encounter in Australia. It will be interesting to see how it turns out if the experiment is allowed to go ahead. If India go traditional, one may expect a pitch good for batting for the first two-and-a-half days, and from the third day, the natural wear and tear would come into play.
Stats and Trivia
- West Indies last won a Test in India in 1994. Since then they have played only eight Tests.
- With a win-loss ratio of 7.5, India has been the most dominant home side this decade, winning 30 Tests and losing only four.
- Among current batsmen with 3000 or more runs, Brathwaite’s strike of 41.63 is the second-lowest, only marginally behind Azhar Ali’s 41.50.
- Cheteshwar Pujara starts the series 191 short of 5000 career runs, Rahul 189 short of 2000.
