India vs West Indies 2013: Preview - India hopes to bid Tendulkar a winning farewell at Wankhede

West Indies

Shivnarine Chanderpaul would play his 150th game

Sachin Tendulkar will play his 200th Test but the West Indian great Shivnarine Chamderpaul will also feature in his 150th game at Mumbai. He will become the seventh player to go past the mark of 150 Tests after Sachin Tendulkar (200*), Steve Waugh (168), Ricky Ponting (168), Rahul Dravid (164), Jacques Kallis (164) and Allan Border (156).

It may be a great moment for him but the Caribbean army needs to up their game if they even want to compete with this very strong Indian side. The Darren Sammy led West Indies side looked in the ascendancy on Day 2 in Kolkata but they loosened their grip as Rohit Sharma and Ashwin ran away with the game. Even worse was their batting display in the second essay. Except Darren Bravo and Kieron Powell no other batsmen put up a fight and surrendered in front of a dangerous Md. Shami.

Darren Sammy would be worried about Chris Gayle’s form with the bat and will hope the left-hander to get among the runs at Mumbai.

Their bowling too, except Shane Shillingford, looked flat and lacked any sting. The injury to Kemar Roach came as a huge blow and the debutant Sheldon Cotterel hasn’t really made life difficult for the Indian batsmen. Tino Best tried hard and got the ball to reverse but his inconsistency of line had let him down throughout the previous Test.

However, the biggest problem for the Windies is their captain Darren Sammy. Sammy has to figure out his role in the side. He is, right now, batting one position above where he should be and his bowling hasn’t been incisive enough. Even his captaincy has been ordinary and he has let important moments slip in the Kolkata Test match.

The West Indies squad is pretty thin at this moment and the injury to Kemar Roach has left them in dire straits as far as their bowling options are concerned. There may not be any major change in the XI because West Indies simply don;t have better options. They would be heavily reliant on Shillingford for the wickets and would hope Permaul to chip in with his left-arm spin.

West Indies squad: Darren Sammy (c), Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Tino Best, Sheldon Cottrell, Narsingh Deonarine, Kirk Edwards, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieran Powell, Shane Shillingford, Chadwick Walton.