India start favourites

It’s been more than 30 years since India won a Test series in the Caribbean. Back in 1971, their batting was dominated by the great Sunil Gavaskar, who scored 774 runs at an average of 154.80. This 2002 tour threatens to be another successful venture as the new master batsman from the Indian subcontinent, Sachin Tendulkar, makes his second visit. His first wasn't particularly successful for either his team or himself but conditions similar to 1971 prevail in West Indies cricket today. Irrespective of how many runs you get as an individual or as a team, if your bowlers are incapable of bowling the opposition out twice, you are not going to win too many Test matches. The recent tour of Sri Lanka, where the Windies master batsman Brian Lara scored 688 runs in the three Tests but they still lost 3-0, is a fine example.

Back in 1971, the Windies, with the bowlers available, found the task of getting 20 wickets almost insurmountable, and when they did manage the task, they were unable to do it cheaply enough. India, on the other hand, had a fantastic array of spin bowlers capable of wreaking havoc amongst most batting line-ups around the world.

Today, with the recent retirements of Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose and the unavailability of bowlers like Franklyn Rose, who got the man of the match award in the first Test when India last visited, plus Nixon McLean, who has decided to ply his trade in foreign lands, the Windies are struggling for bowlers. India, in the meantime, along with the aforementioned Sachin Tendulkar have batsmen of the calibre of their captain Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, who almost single-handedly turned the tables on Australia on their most recent visit to the subcontinent, to pile on the runs on pitches in the Caribbean.

It helps that pitches here have become more and more batsman-friendly in recent years. But as I mentioned before, you need to bowl the opposition out twice and the ammunition for that task is available. Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan may or may not be effective on these pitches in the Caribbean, but the 'Turbanator', Harbhajan Singh, and the very reliable Anil Kumble will prove to be a handful. With the amount of runs expected to be piled up by their batsmen, the Windies batsmen will have lots of close company, waiting for that one small misjudgment of either spin or bounce that could bring about their downfall.

At the time of writing, there is some doubt surrounding the participation of Harbhajan Singh in this first Test, but I had the privilege of riding in the lift with him two nights before the game, and he seemed fine. He was returning to his room, with a gentleman who seemed to be a part of the hotel security team and so I quickly grabbed the opportunity to ask of his well being. He seemed in good spirits, as the MRI done in Trinidad on his shoulder had revealed nothing sinister, and was hoping to take his place in the starting line-up. That’s good news for India; they wouldn’t want to be losing the bowler who took over 30 wickets in the three Tests against a side like Australia.

Of course, fingers will be pointed to the fact that those performances were at home on spinner-friendly pitches and also to the fact that India on a whole are poor tourists. Those are important factors that the Windies and their supporters will be clinging to, hoping for a turnaround in the recent fortunes of the team.

Man for man and purely on cricketing terms, India are favourites for this upcoming series, but if their away form continues to be as poor as in recent times, the Windies will not let any opportunity go abegging.

- Gameplan

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