India seek to consolidate top spot against inconsistent Windies

Seagram’s Royal Stag Cup Test Series…

The adage “good things come to those who wait” has a connotation that impatience can jeopardise the chances of the arrival of good things, but it is highly unlikely impatience will hurt India’s chances of becoming No. 1 in Test cricket. Given their dominance at home over the last few years, India are almost certain to become the top-ranked Test team at some point during the 13-Test home season, but Virat Kohli’s men do not want to wait that long, as they take on the West Indies in the final Test today at the Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad and Tobago.

They have a great opportunity here, they have West Indies on the mat, they have finished two Tests inside four days, and if they win the last Test they will retain their momentary No.1 Test ranking that came their way when Australia lost 3-0 to Sri Lanka. If they do manage to win at Queen’s Park Oval, it will be only the second time that they will have won three Tests in an away series.
It has not just been about India’s content. West Indies have been accommodating hosts apart for brief spells when they have shown the discipline to push India. There was a time when they had made India bowlers wait 528 balls for a wicket, but lost their last 17 wickets in 63.5 overs to lose the third despite a day’s relief handed to them by rain. There was a time when they had reduced India to 126 for 5 in 49.3 overs but not only did they concede 227 in the rest of that innings, they went at 4.5 an over in the second when they needed to delay India’s declaration. India have been tested but not for long enough.
Coming to the only ground where they have won more than they have lost in the last 10 years, West Indies will hope they can put up creditable resistance.
Kohli has made it clear he will be batting at No. 3 to accommodate Rohit Sharma at No. 5. Except that the last Test, when he moved up to No.3, exposing himself to a newish ball, he registered his lowest Test aggregate. Kohli, though, wants to lead by example; if he feels playing Rohit is the right thing to, he will be the first one to make a sacrifice if required. A middling attack is not a bad place to test himself at No. 3 either.
First there was Darren Sammy, now there is Jason Holder: pliant Test captains whose spirit cannot be doubted but whose numbers do not justify a settled place in Test XIs. Anybody who has followed this series knows Holder has toiled his socks off but he still remains a No. 8 who averages 48.09 with the ball. He has only one wicket to show for 86.2 overs of tireless bowling with a proud seam in this series.
Joel Garner, the former fast-bowling great who is now West Indies’ team manager, feels players from the region have promise but don’t work hard enough.
“We’ve always had promising players, we’ve always had attractive players, the problems we have is that, most of the players are identified, I don’t think they work hard enough, and they fall away,” Garner said, in a media interaction on Tuesday. “I think that if the players are prepared to work as hard as they need to work, they can get to the top of world cricket as well.”
When asked which areas the players might need to work harder on, he pointed to the lack of long innings and sizeable partnerships, which has been a problem for West Indies right through their ongoing Test series against India, apart from the final day of the drawn second Test in Jamaica.
“I think that the longer they spend in the middle, the easier the batting becomes,” he said. “And I think that is one area that I’d like to see improve, where you’d like to see the fellows batting long, not only batting long but batting effectively.
Leon Johnson, who replaced the failing opener Rajendra Chandrika in the third Test, has not set the world alight but has shown promise. West Indies are likely to give him another Test. Queen’s Park Oval has traditionally been a spinner-friendly surface so if West Indies bring back Devendra Bishoo, it will have to be at the expense of one of the three specialist quicks, none of whom had a horrible Test in St Lucia.
A dry pitch awaits at the Oval, but there were intermittent rains in the lead up to the match so interruptions during the match would be likely.
Match time is 10:00 hrs
West Indies-Jason Holder (capt), Kraigg Brathwaite (vc), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Leon Johnson, Alzarri Joseph and Marlon Samuels.
India- Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Aswin, Stuart Binny, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Cheteshwar Pujara, Lokesh Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha, Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Murali Vijay, Umesh Yadav and Inshant Sharma.