Print

Please post once and this message will disappear! Introduce yourself, say hello, jump into a discussion...

[keep-it-cool]

India Have The Quality to Excel 

Fans in the Caribbean know a lot about Dravid, would have seen a bit of Sehwag and at least heard of Yuvraj's recent exploits. Add to those, the hard hitting Dhoni, Kaif, young guns Raina and Powar and you get the idea that the Windies bowling could be thoroughly tested.
 
 
MICHAEL HOLDING
 
As the one-day international series against Zimbabwe drew to a close in the Caribbean this weekend, the West Indies team will be turning their attention to the upcoming five ODIs against their next opponents India.

This will be a completely different kettle of fish for the Windies. While Zimbabwe linger at the bottom of both Test and ODI rankings, India have been proving their worth in both forms of the game, and not just on home soil.

Sure, the Windies have dominated the present series but like this last game, at times Zimbabwe have not been outclassed to the degree you would have expected considering their problems with the availability of their best players for selection. And that is good reason for the Windies fans to be a bit skeptical about the upcoming contest.

India's batting lineup, even without the injured Sachin Tendulkar, is a formidable one.

Fans in the Caribbean know a lot about captain Rahul Dravid and would have seen a bit of Virender Sehwag and at least heard of the recent exploits of Yuvraj Singh but add to those, the hard hitting Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammed Kaif and the two young guns Suresh Raina and Ramesh Powar and you get the idea that the Windies bowling attack could be thoroughly tested this time around.

Yuvraj has developed tremendously over the last 12 months or so and is now the finished article and Raina and Powar look to be two young batsmen going places but Dhoni is a destroyer. He is a powerful man who could make these comparatively small West Indies cricket grounds look like indoor arenas and perhaps it would not be a bad idea if they were because if he is not dismissed cheaply, the West Indies Cricket Board could end up with an unusually high equipment bill for lost cricket balls.

It should not be all one-way street where powerful hitting is concerned though as captain Dravid has acknowledged that the West Indies batting lineup is not one to be sniffed at. "Any team that has players of the quality of Brian Charles Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle and Shivnarain Chanderpaul, is going to be a serious batting lineup" is how he put it on his arrival with his team in Jamaica recently and that cannot be denied.

The Windies will have to be a lot more consistent with their performances though, it is great to have names on paper but it is the production that counts.

So, perhaps with such strong batting lineups in both teams, it will be the team that bowls and fields better that will end up in front after the five games. The Windies should just be ahead in the fielding stakes with quick sure handed players like Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Ronako Morton and even Chanderpaul from the older brigade in the outfield but the inexperienced bowlers will have their work cut out.

India's victories in more recent times have come mostly from chasing targets and one could say that is also going to be the best chance of victory for the West Indies as well. So you could possibly see the toss in each match attracting more attention and playing a greater significance than usual.

As for the Test series, different disciplines and possibly different personnel will be involved to a degree for both teams. India have not won a Test series in the Caribbean since 1971 and have only won three of the 38 they have contested with 19 drawn, which means they have lost 16.

And while the West Indies will be drawing on past experiences and history to prepare mentally for battle, India will be trying to put those statistics behind them and concentrate on the present. They certainly have the quality and better recent form to get the job done.
 

[Libran]

Any team worth its name can put it across WI in the current situation. And the high India has attained in recent times can be brought down only by an exceptional performance by WI......

Holding  is only stating the obvious 

[worma]

Any team worth its name can put it across WI in the current situation. And the high India has attained in recent times can be brought down only by an exceptional performance by WI......

Holding  is only stating the obvious 

I dont agree....esp in tests. Indian performance outside subcontinent is surely *in balance* with WI at home. Yes, despite what we had proven with our performance in Australia.

[keep-it-cool]

I am with Worma on this one. WI are as unpredictable as we were some years ago - that there is some serious skill there is not in doubt; almost every player has demonstrated that at different times. It is just that they have not put it all together at the same time.
At worst, they are like Zim was a few years back - i.e. a dangerous team with very poor consistency ... and India did struggle against Zim in their backyard.
Very often, it does not take much for a team to get its act together. Remember, this is largely the same team that won the last Champions Trophy and they know the conditions well. Add India's poor track record outside the sub continent and the outcome is not as certain as is being made out to be.

[worma]

Just to clarify..I disagree with ravi on the point that Holding, by backing India, is stating the obvious.

I still agree with Holding that India should be the favourites, even in the tests, but its about as obvious as was Aussies being able to defend a 400+ total against a more-or-less similar WI lineup a few years back.

[Libran]

Just to clarify..I disagree with ravi on the point that Holding, by backing India, is stating the obvious.

I still agree with Holding that India should be the favourites, even in the tests, but its about as obvious as was Aussies being able to defend a 400+ total against a more-or-less similar WI lineup a few years back.

Worma...U forgot the 'dead rubber' syndrome that catches up with the Aussies 

And given that India has learnt to win outside of India (not sub continent) in recent times is in itself a fact that works in its favor.

[keep-it-cool]

Of course India start as favourites, and I would be very disappointed if we do not win. But I do not buy the view that the gap is as wide as is being made out or as the ICC and other rankings indicate.

[worma]

ravi: kic already said what I would have wanted to, in reply to your point.

Yes we are favourites, but not so much that backing us becomes a statement of obvious.

We have won outside the subcontinent as intermittently as WI have played well at home. Yes the Aussies do occasionaly suffer from the dead rubber syndrome, but even that is an exxageration. They win enough of those dead rubbers also, and against strong teams, (e.g. they beat SA at home in the dead rubber...and SA at home were good enough to give a scare to the second best team in the world - Eng) for it to be considered an achievement by any side managing a victory.

WI are dangerous if their batting clicks....and their batting clicks if they get the Lara confidence going in the series. They played fairly well in their recent tour down under...the final scoreline would obviously not show that. And, more importantly, it will not show that Lara got 3 bad decisions in the series, including when it wasn't dead, and yet managed to dominate the Aussie bowlers, in the end.