India look for unassailable lead (Preview)

It isn’t a good time to be a West Indies cricket fan. Certainly not. For last five years or so, West Indies cricket has followed a pattern that has left their fans very disappointed. Batting collapses, squandering a comfortable position to the opposition, a timid approach in the field and to be fair with them lack of skill, at times, have made things difficult for them.

And to top that, the communication gap between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and players haven’t helped the matters either. An odd win here or there has been the story of Caribbean cricket. As of now, no solution seems to be in the sight. One player who could make a real difference to the team, Chris Gayle continues to be ignored by the selectors due to his falling out with the board.

The performance of the home team against India in the first two ODI’s hasn’t been up to the mark. Both the losses have followed the trend, of late, synonymous with their sorry show in the cricket field. First match saw them being outplayed by India and in second they had an upper hand till the 40th over of the first innings. Four overs of madness witnessed a familiar recession in the batting from 192 for 3 to 197 for 7 and eventually cost them a game. Barring Ravi Rampaul and Devendra Bishoo, bowling unit has lacked teeth to defend low scores.

Such is the sorry state of West Indies team that skipper Darren Sammy’s place in the side is under scrutiny. Despite giving his everything he could on the field, things aren’t happening for the beleaguered skipper. The home side needs some confidence boosting performance from somewhere to lift themselves from 0-2 reading.

Last game did come with some positives though. Foremost being the flow with which Marlon Samuels played and Ramnaresh Sarwan scoring yet another fifty. To their credit, top order did show some urgency and intent that was lacking in the first ODI when they were batting. All the good work was undone by reckless shots and for West Indies to compete in the series, it is mighty important for their batters to cut down on poor shot making.

What West Indies lacks, India is full of that. The recently crowned world champions are looking a decent side even without big guns. Fringe players are making sure they turn on the heat to make it big in what could well turn out to be limited opportunities once stalwarts are back. It was Harbhajan Singh in bowling and young batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma through their batting that won India first game of the series. Second game saw bowling duo of Amit Sharma and Munaf Patel come to the party and rest was done opener Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli to give India 2-0 lead.

Suresh Raina led side doesn’t look like a team dropping a game in the series at this moment. Batting looks okay, bowling possesses variety and fielding has been top notch. The focus will be to avoid complacency and attain unassailable lead on Saturday. Then they will give a try to rest of the players in the squad.

Sammy’s boys would be hoping change in the venue brings some luck their way but the kind of cricket home team is playing it seems highly unlikely.

West Indies squad: Darren Sammy (capt), Carlton Baugh (wk), Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Kirk Edwards, Danza Hyatt, Anthony Martin, Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons

India Squad: Suresh Raina (capt), R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh (vc), Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan.