The West Indies cricket team will be facing much more opposition from team India than they had with Pakistan.
Pakistan won the ODI series 3-2, and levelled the Test series 1-1. The West Indies won the Twenty20 match.
India is a much stronger opponent than Pakistan with batting and bowling in spite of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni not included in the touring team for the limited overs series. Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Yuvrag Singh are also not touring.
Yuvrag Singh was named man of the series in this year’s World Cup. He performed extremely well with the bat and ball during the ICC World Cup.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan would be in Test squad
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan are expected to participate in the three Test series in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Kitts.
India’s batting remains strong in spite of some senior players not playing. Stand-in captain for India Suresh Raina is a swash buckling batsman in One-Day Cricket and other players Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Manog Tiwary and Inshat Sharma are top players at that level.
India’s Bowling
The experienced right-handed opening bowler Munaf Patel is well known for bowling under any condition; much would be expected from him. Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh,Vinay Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan are also very competitive at this level.
India’s Test Squad
Mahendra Singh Dhoni [captain], VVS Laxman, M Vijay,Abhinav Mukund,Rahul Dravid,Virat Kohli, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishan Sharma, T.Sressanth, Amit Mishra,Prag Yanojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel,Suresh Raina and Parthi Patel.
India In West Indies
June 4 – Digicel Twenty20 at Queens Park Oval in Trinidad.
June 6 – First Digicel ODI at Queens Park Oval.
June 8 – Second Digicel ODIat Queens Park Oval.
June 11 – Third Digicel ODIat Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
June 13 – Fourth Digicel ODI at Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground
June 16 – Fifth Digicel ODI at Sabina Park, Jamaica.
Digicel Test Series
June 20 – 24 First Digicel Test match at Sabina Park.
June 28 – July 2 Second Digicel Test at Kensington Oval, Barbados.
July 6 – 10 Third Digicel Test at Windsor Park, St. Kitts.
West Indies Batsmen Must Perform Well
In order for the West Indies team to show any force to gain success in the series with India the batsmen must perform well. Apart from building partnerships their individual scores must reflect highly. Batsmen must focus on scoring centuries and not settling for 34 and 42 runs.
Head Coach Ottis Gibson and batting consultant Desmond Haynes have a tough job ahead of them. One more fast bowler is needed in the team and the selectors must get Jerome Taylor back in the squad and put all petty arguments and issues aside.
The best interest of West Indies Cricket should be paramount.The WICB has too many irrelavant issues at hand that stifles the rebuilding process. There is no other board in the cricketing world that have so many issues with its players. The WICB should search within itself before pointing outside.
