There is no tangible entry called the West Indies, yet there was a time when West Indies was the second favourite team for all cricket viewers, after their respective home nations. The brand of cricket they portrayed was entertaining, exhilarating, almost other-worldly. They possessed a pace attack that sent shivers up the spine of the best batting units in the world, they had batters who could destroy and decimate any bowling attack anywhere in the universe. They lorded the Test arena, of course, but their natural flair and innate athleticism also brought them the first two limited-overs World Cups in England in 1975 and 1979, both 60-over affairs.
That time is now well in the past. West Indies no longer are the lords and masters of the cricketing ecosystem. They haven’t been for a while now. True, they won the T20 World Cup twice in three editions, but most of their Test victories now are considered upsets. Every besting of a top nation is hyped up as the harbinger of a new dawn, but more often than not, sporadic victories have been followed by a string of shattering losses.
New low
West Indies hit the lowest of lows over the last few days after surrendering their first Twenty20 International series against Nepal 0-2 in Sharjah. True, it wasn’t West Indies at full strength – truth to tell, no one knows anymore what a full-strength West Indian side is – but it was a team that played under the West Indies banner. To be rolled over by an Associate nation still finding its feet in cricket, to be shot out for 83 in the second of those two games, must be viewed as a catastrophe by those still invested in West Indies cricket. That number is, sadly, dwindling by the day. A proud set of people have been disillusioned by the apathy of those administering the game in that region, an apathy that seems have seeped into the playing fraternity as well. They are currently ranked eighth out of 12 teams that play Test cricket. It wasn’t thus, it shouldn’t be thus.
In their first Test visit of India since October 2018, Roston Chase and his men face a tall order against an Indian side fresh off a stirring 2-2 stalemate in England. India are on the throes of five-day transition following the retirements in the last 10 months of R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, in that order. West Indies have been in transition for a couple of decades now, struggling to piece together settled units that can compete on even terms with the rest on a sustained basis. India are powerhouses at home, their 0-3 surrender to New Zealand last year notwithstanding; West Indies don’t inspire the same awe, which has left the cricketing world a lot poorer.
The last time West Indies won a Test match in India was in 1994, in the first game hosted by the PCA Stadium in Mohali. The stadium itself has now gone out of international commission, replaced by the new facility in Mullanpur, some 40 minutes away from Mohali in what is now called New Chandigarh. One has to go all the way back to 1983-84 for the Caribbeans’ last series triumph in the traditional land of spin. Clive Lloyd’s men had a point to prove after being stunned in the final of the World Cup at Lord’s a few months previously, their designs of a hat-trick of titles rudely shattered. Determined to punish India for their audacity, they mounted a spectacular campaign, winning the first, third and fifth Tests of a six-match series during which Sunil Gavaskar went past Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries with a career-best unbeaten 236 in the final game, in Chennai.
More than 40 years have passed since that 3-0 victory, upwards of 30 years have elapsed after the Mohali success which fuelled the last stalemate between the sides on Indian soil. India have won each of the four subsequent series with a measure of comfort. The last of them was a comprehensive 2-0 sweep with Prithvi Shaw marking his debut in Rajkot with a hundred and Rishabh Pant scoring 92s in Rajkot and Hyderabad, which hosted the second Test. Shaw has tapered off, his international career in a limbo; finding no takers in the IPL and left out of the Mumbai squad, he has moved to Maharashtra to resurrect his career. Pant, who has made a remarkable recovery from a life-threatening road accident in December 2022, is on the road to regaining full fitness after sustaining a fracture in his right leg during the Manchester Test towards the end of July. Even in his absence, India wear a formidable look with Dhruv Jurel looking to make a name for himself again after a terrific debut against England at home last year in Pant’s injury enforced absence.
West Indies don’t have too many names that even die-hard Indian cricket followers will be familiar with. Two bowlers with the capacity to make a big impact have been ruled out through injuries. Shamar Joseph had an outstanding debut in Adelaide in January last year with a five-wicket haul, which he followed up with seven for 68 in the next match in Brisbane, a day-night encounter which the Caribbeans won by eight runs. It was their first victory on Australian soil in 27 years; the Guyanese quick has 51 wickets from 11 Tests and could have posed India tough questions with his pace, but without him and Alzarri Joseph, the former Under-19 star from Antigua who is a 40-Test veteran, the pace attack looks undercooked and a little out of sorts.
India will be desperate to prove to their fans that the New Zealand implosion was a one-off that should not detract from their dominance on home patch. In some ways, the Kiwis got lucky; India shockingly misread the conditions in Bengaluru despite the first day of the series being washed out. Rohit opted to bat, India was rolled over for 46 and that set in motion a chain of events that consigned it to its first ever whitewash in a three-Test home series. Tom Latham won both tosses on turners in Pune and Mumbai, exploited adroitly by left-arm spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel respectively. The 3-0 defeat ended India’s chances of making it to the final of the World Test Championship for a third cycle running. It also exposed the folly of presenting turners to overseas spinners, who were thus able to bridge the gulf in quality between themselves and India’s more accomplished slower bowlers.
It is debatable if, in the first home series since Ashwin’s retirement, India will make the same mistake again of bringing the West Indian spinners, including vice-captain Jomel Warrican, the left-arm spinner, into play. Even without Ashwin, there is so much quality and depth in the Indian spinning ranks. The extended squad of 15 has four tweakers, of whom three are likely to figure in the first Test, starting on Thursday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner, hasn’t played a Test since the Bengaluru disaster against the Kiwis, but warmed up with 17 wickets from seven matches in the T20 Asia Cup in the Emirates, while Washington Sundar is coming off a nice little run with Hampshire in the English County Championship. Ravindra Jadeja, who will round off the triumvirate, is well rested after his exploits in England, mainly with the bat, and should relish the role of the lead spinner. Axar Patel is waiting in the wings, hoping to break back into the Test XI. He took 20 wickets in back-to-back Tests in Ahmedabad against England in February 2021 though in his last five-day game at the venue against Australia in March last year, he had to be content with match figures of two for 83 on a dead surface that threw up a dull, dreary draw.
India don’t much fancy draws these days. With WTC points available from every game, skipper Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir will leave no stone unturned in the bid to build on the gains derived from England.
Not many gave India a chance to come away from England with honours shared, but with the skipper leading from the front and pacer Mohammed Siraj rising to the occasion in the final Test at the Oval where too Jasprit Bumrah was rested, they eked out a commendable 2-2 scoreline.
Gill finished the series with 754 runs before travelling to Dubai for the Asia Cup. Any concerns that he might have got into bad T20 habits which might affect his Test game should be viewed against the fact that he faced only 84 deliveries in seven innings – that’s 12 balls per knock – which wasn’t time enough to attract routines counter-productive to Test match batsmanship.
West Indies have nothing to lose and therefore, at least in theory, they should come out swinging, but not recklessly, if they get the opportunity to do so. They know that in all ways imaginable, the pressure will be on the home side. India is expected to get the job done, and get it done quickly, given the wide gulf between the sides. Without the two Josephs, they might unearth another potent quick looking to make an immediate impact. On slowish pitches, that might not be on the cards, but unless they give it a shot, we won’t know either, will we?
The Caribbean bowlers will be under no illusion about the magnitude of the task ahead of them. India’s batters all filled their boots in England with reinvigorated opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (twice), Jadeja and Washington Sundar, left-handers all, making hundreds alongside K.L. Rahul and Pant, who each finished with two centuries, and Gill, who topped the charts with four. Rahul and Jaiswal are in the starting stages of forging an excellent working relationship at the top of the order, which India will attempt to use as a springboard to greater success.
Overmatched West Indies against fancied India might not throw up riveting fare, but then again, what is Test cricket without glorious uncertainties?
