Can West Indies prevent whitewash? (Preview)

Three months back, India took the field at Kennington Oval with sole aim of avoiding an impending whitewash against England. Unfortunately, they couldn’t prevent the calamity leading to calls of wholesale changes in the team. Fast forward to coming Tuesday, and the same men will be looking for a clean sweep against West Indies at Wankhede having already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three match series. This is the fickle nature of cricket; it doesn’t take long for the hunted to turn hunter or vice-versa.

While India flopped big time in England, on home soil though, the traffic has been one-way. The series clinching innings victory at low and slow Eden Gardens was result of an all-round performance with batsmen piling on a huge score for the bowlers to run through West Indies in the first innings and even though there was some resistance from the visitors following on, the job of making India batting again proved to be too much of an ask.

Centuries from Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and VVS Laxman meant India were in the driver’s seat right from the start. In the bowling department, India seem to have unearthed talent- Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin have so far performed the spin duties with aplomb, Umesh Yadav’s match figures of 7 for 103 in only his second outing makes him a certainty for the Australia tour later this year.

Since, India have an important assignment lined-up after this series, all the players would want to hit form before they start the campaign down-under. With this series already in the bag, there may be one or two experiments. Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma may find a place in the starting eleven replacing dropped Yuvraj Singh and one of the rested seniors. Also, this is the last opportunity for the two youngsters to impress the selectors before the touring part for Australia is announced.

Contrarily, for West Indies this is last bit of Test cricket they play before a long lay-off. Wouldn’t they would want to sign off on a high. Despite being a side with many inexperienced players, West Indies’ performance thus far has been pretty much on expected lines. At times, they have made India sweat but often, they have faltered.

The overall results aside, there have been few encouraging signs for Caribbean cricket none better than Darren Bravo’s superb 136 that took the Kolkata match into fourth day. Following on against a bowling unit with its tail up, Bravo showed exemplary resilience in foiling the Indians for more than five hours. He was ably supported by Marlon Samuels and Kirk Edwards.

Despite the series already decided in India’s favour, few things will still generate interest including the elusive hundredth ton for Sachin Tendulkar that has overshadowed almost every individual achievement. West Indies will for sure play for pride but India are favorites to achieve a 3-0 victory margin.

India squad: MS Dhoni (Capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Ajinkye Rahane, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron

West Indies Squad: Darren Sammy (Capt), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh (wk), Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford.