West Indies vs India: Report Card

Loads were talked, criticized and discussed about the recently concluded West Indies tour even before it started. It was once a great tour where cricketers wanted to tick this in their resume. Even today, the 406 run chase by India under Bishen Singh Bedi in Port-of-Spain is talked about and cherished not the one in which India get shot down for 81 chasing a paltry 120 . But the 3-2 series win that India achieved a few days back will not remain etched in memory 30 years down the lane. The main reason why the Carribean tour was a great challenge to cricketers across the globe,was due to its bouncing tracks, the tormenting bowlers and most elegant batsmen. But what was not there in this current tour that made an India ‘A’ get picked itself for the tour.

The West Indies cricket board seems to be having a whole lot of issues within itself and with the players. With the current situation it seems that players like Chris Gayle should start looking for a new profession.May be Curtly Ambrose’s band can use his dance moves to attract bigger crowds. In the near future, I see a lot of other cricketers also falling out of favour due to lobbyism. The present West Indian team for the last few years have actually been West Indian ‘A’ (‘A’ team referring to second string team). There are no tall pacemen who can extract bounce off a belter of a track,nor are there cricketers who with sheer elegance and temperament can take their side through.Nothing of the “Carribean” flavour remains.

The Indian players could not contain from appreciating the hospitality of the West Indies Cricket Board on and off the field. They always felt they were playing on a home turf with the pitches being very similar to the ones provided in the subcontinent. Only the last 2 ODIs showed glimpses of bounce but which again would have been achieved in pitches like Mohali. Both the teams heavily relied on spin. This tour was one of those unique tours where when Carribean bowlers were talked about a spinner’s name came before a seamer’s name. The batting of both the sides looked very lacklustre except for a few glimpses of brilliance from Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli, Andre Russel and Darren Bravo. Let us see how the 2 teams have performed in this ODI series.

WEST INDIES:

Batting

In a 5 match series, when a team uses 3 opening combinations, it is pretty clear that the team has not been able to zero in on any one particular pair. Only Adrian Barath was a genuine opener and Lendl Simmons is growing to become one. Though Kirk Edwards has been opening for West Indies over the last 4 months, it is shocking to know he averages just 19 at a strike rate of around 60 after 9 matches, 8 of them played in the Carribean. The middle order,upper and lower was pathetic. Ramnaresh Sarwan has been playing decent cricket over the past few years, but we have not seen him play slow in his entire career. Marlon Samuels was the lone person in that line up who should glimpses of yester year Carribean Cricket. He played at a brisk pace and played good cameos in the opportunities he got. The Bravo half-brothers hardly made an impact with the bat,but for the brilliant knock by the younger one in the last ODI.Keiron Pollard as always been overrated by his team has proved once again that he does not have the champion stuff in him.

Bowling

Anthony Martin, Andre Russel and Devendra Bishoo were the top wicket takers. Yes, and 2 of the 3 are spinners. Kemar Roach,Ravi Rampaul and Darren Sammy share just 9 wickets amongst them over a 5 match series. Martin did a good job, and reminded me of Roger Harper, Bishoo continued his great job that he left in the World Cup and Andre Russel has the prospects of becoming a great allrounder. Keiron Pollard was not threatening with the bowling as well,and Dwayne Bravo looked out of sorts in the 5 overs he bowled spread over 2 games.

INDIA:

Well, India were not far behind in the experimentation with them try out 14 out of the 15 players in the squad. It definitely is a good sign that more players get the chance in the middle, but one must realise that when someone does not even get 5 matches on a trot to play, how could he even get to show his prowess. The batting and bowling were overall comparatively better than the host team but still lacked the quality of an International Side.

Batting

Shikhar Dhawan came into the tour as the lone specialist opener, and this was the only reason why he got to play 4 out of the 5 matches of the tournament. He was very very poor at the top of the order. Though he managed himself a half century in the tour, it was definitely not one of the knocks someone would remember. Parthiv Patel did show a lot of courage opening for India and did a decent job when compared to the last time he played for India. Currently,there seems to be nothing going wrong in the career and life of Virat Kohli. This lad from Delhi has been phenomenal since the last 8-10 months for India,and seems to go on to become one of the games’ most prolific players. Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath, the CSK teammates,could not do much to the Indian XI. Rohit Sharma,finally grabbed his opportunity with both hands and rightly became the player of the series. Yusuf Pathan should start to play with more cricketing brain rather than sheer instincts.

Bowling

Amit Mishra proved once again why he is the best leg spinner in the country now. He picked up 11 wickets at 19 a piece giving away just 4 runs an over. Munaf Patel did a decent job along with Praveen Kumar. Though Ravichandran Ashwin’s and Ishant Sharma’s statistics does not show a great picture,they did do a decent job. On a whole the bowling unit was much more disciplined than the batting outfit.

Suresh Raina did a decent job as a skipper though he was not really tested during any point of the ODI series. Darren Sammy realised that there is no one else in the squad,who is comfortable with all the players,and hence becomes the automatic choice. He has not been a fantastic captain but has been able to bring out decent victories with such a team.

Best Batsman of the tour : Rohit Sharma

Worst Batsman of the tour : Subramaniam Badrinath

Best Bowler of the tour : Amit Mishra

Worst Bowler of the tour : Darren Sammy

Best Allrounder of the tour : Andre Russel

Worst Allrounders of the tour : Keiron Pollard and Yusuf Pathan

Arun Shankar