India vs West Indies 3rd Test Debate

The 3rd and last test of the current test series between India and the West Indies is starting tomorrow. The match is played at Mumbai's wankhede stadium. It is the first match there since remodeling for the World Cup.
As far as the teams are concerned, India is sure to have at least one change. Yuvraj Singh, who played the first 2 matches, has been dropped, and Rohit Sharma brought in to the squad. Among Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane, it is Kohli who is in with the best chance to make the XI. The other question for India is with regard to young pacer Varun Aaron. Would be interesting if they wan't to have a closer look at him before the Australia series. If they go this unconvensional path, that would mean a rest for Ishant Sharma.
For the West Indies, Ravi Rampaul has regained fitness, and it is likely that Kemar Roach may have to give way for him. At the eve of the match, there are concerns about Shivnarine Chanderpaul's fitness, although the WI camp seems to be hopeful about him playing. A final call be taken only tomorrow.
After being whitewashed by England, its India's chance to do the honors this time. Of course there is the ton of tons, particularly on his home ground to be considered.
Genrally, the Wankhede offers a decent cricket pitch, with a bit for everyone, the batter, the seamer, and the spinner. Weather conditions also look fine.
Will it be a clean sweep for India? Will the WI fight and put one up on the Indians?
Lets debate.

would have liked to have seen Varun AAron get a go in this final test, with the series already won.

Really cant see the windies putting up much of a fight here. They are simply outclassed as well as not that interested.

im very suprised at how bad their batsman have done, the majoirty of the series. Ashwin has mystery, but the other bowlers are all predictable.

cricinfo reports that Sammy has hinted at an all pace attack. Think that will be the wrong move. We are not talking about an attack of Roberts, Holding, Marshall and Croft remember.
Besides, Devendra Bishoo, so far has had a decent outing against the Indians. He was by no means spectacular, but not even Muralitharan and Warne managed to be that against India in India.
The Wankhede pitch should offer something to the spinners, particularly as the game goes on.

all-out pace attack would be a complete disaster IMO, probably comes back to the point that Sammy isn't really in the three best seamers in the WI. Bishoo's done a decent job so far I think, and doesn't deserve to be dropped

Looking ahead in the future for windies cricket

Brathwaite: Looks a decent prospect, but needs to remeber to pick up the 1's and 2's

Darren Bravo: Same as brathwaite

Kirk Edwards: looks to be a fantastic talent averaging over 55 after first 4 matches

Baugh: Needs runs quickly or ramdin will come back

Bishoo: promising leggie needs time at international level

Rampaul: leader of windies attack and is very good

Kemar Roach: needs to realise its not all aobut pace

Just read that (not including two test series) India have only twice ever whitewashed a team.

I expect them to make that three. I, at the moment can not see the WI fragile batting make enough runs in two innings to stop India.

Early news - No all pace attack, Roach out with gastroenteritis.

woahhhhhhhh No Chanderpaul either, game over before it has begun.

Between them the whole WI team has scored 5,767 runs. Sachin =

Aaron gets his debut, looking foward to see if he can become India's next big thing.

He will not get a better chance

Solid enough start WI 22-0. No alarms.

But spin on now.

Surprised to see Yadav rested. Thought it should have been Ishant, particularly considering his not so solid ankle and all who should have been rested. May be the management thought that would leave the bowling a touch too inexperienced.
Anyways, Ishant's experience hasn't come to help India as yet in the match. Both he and Aaron, particularly the latter, were bowling far too short and didn't really make use of the favorable early morning conditions or the new ball.
Pretty solid start from the West Indies. They need every batter to play out of their skinss, as there is no Shiv to play the talisman in this match.

80-0 at lunch, Brathwaite playing T20 style (well it is for him) 35 from 103 balls. Good session for WI. Hard work for India.

msp83 wrote:Surprised to see Yadav rested. Thought it should have been Ishant, particularly considering his not so solid ankle and all who should have been rested. May be the management thought that would leave the bowling a touch too inexperienced.
Anyways, Ishant's experience hasn't come to help India as yet in the match. Both he and Aaron, particularly the latter, were bowling far too short and didn't really make use of the favorable early morning conditions or the new ball.
Pretty solid start from the West Indies. They need every batter to play out of their skinss, as there is no Shiv to play the talisman in this match.

A commentator prior to the match starting said he was told they were protecting Yadav for Australia. But he also said that could harm Yadav more than helping him. (Makes perfect sense)

And i also saw Zaheer Khan looking good in the nets.

100 partnership up, WI 100-0 Nothing flashy, just good solid and secure batting.

good to see Varun aaron getting a go. Genuine pace, and looks to be a wicket taker

188-2

WI batsmen have stepped up to the mark very nicely today. Openers put on a really solid partnership, and now Bravo and Edwards (who looks to me to have the right temperament for test cricket) have taken the score past 200.

Ishant has bowled very tightly today, going at under 2 an over.

excellent batting display from the West Indies batters today. The openers, Kraigg Brathwaite and Adrian Barath put up a pretty solid partnership, and Kirk Edwards and the younger Bravo continued the good work. The WI have got themselves a sound platform to go on and do something big. They just need these 2 to go on and get their hundreds, and Marlon Samuels has to step up as the most experienced WI batter.
For India, it was R Ashwin who looked the most threatening with the ball. Even on a solid first day track, he found some spin, and the variations worked alright.
Ojha has to look to attack and put more pressure on the batters. Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron have to make better use of early morning conditions tomorrow. They should be able to work with a newish ball, and find the right length right away if India have to rest the advantage back. More over, they need to take the chances coming their way, unlike they did today.

there's a theory going around that this pitch in Mumbai is much flatter than usual to give Sachin a great chance of reaching n°100 at his home ground. I didn't see much of the play (about ten minutes) but just how flat is the pitch? Could there be some truth to this? If so I'm disappointed, milestones shouldn't come before a team's success...

MFC
Don't think there is a lot to it. Well of course, its a track more towards the flatter side. But in the morning there was a little bit, not much, of zip, and both R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha did manage to turn a few, Ashwin in fact turned a few sharply indeed. But generally, the turn is slow, and ones the first hour is done, there is not much for the seam bowlers. Defenitly a bat first wicket, and its a good toss for the WI to win. By the 4th day, I expect this track to take more spin.

for the windies sake, hopefully Bravo goes on tomorrow and gets a massive score..

i also hope sachin can get his 100th 100 in this test match.

The WI batters are on a role here, India should be looking at a 600+ first innings score to chase.
Bravo got to his 2nd consecutive hundred and is looking good for many more. Kieren Powell, who got drafted in for Shiv, is also looking pretty good and positive.

We have the 3rd hundred partnership of the innings, this time between Bravo and Powell. Bravo and Sir Brian Charles had identical records at the end of 12 test matches. In his 13rd match, Lara scored 167, think Bravo is set to overtake Lara, as it seemsnothing otheer than himself can now get him. As much well as the WI batted, the track has absolutely nothing for the bowlers today. Even R Ashwin is not able to make any impact with his variations.

WI 454-3. This partnership looking absolutely ominous. Sachin Tendulkar in the midst of one of his rather long bowling spels in recent times, into his 3rd over already. He has tried everything, the leggies, offies, quicker ones, slower ones, but Powell and Bravo have countered everything, just like did with all the other bowlers Dhoni tried. Is it time for the captain to bring himself on?

SRT, in his 3rd over, got Bravo to top edge a sweep, but it didn't carry to the fielder in the deep. The closest India came to trouble him for some time now.

GThe BCCI said they were concerned about poor attendance for test match. Well, if they continue to come up with roads to play the game, not many will bother.
The track at least had some hint of life at certain points yesterday, but by the minute it is going flatter and flatter.

Darren Bravo gets to 150, well played young man!.

Powell follows Edwards in missing out on a ton. Taken by Dhone of Ojha for 81. Marlon Samuels joins Bravo, and is trying to play a few shots. Edgy at times, but in between got a couple of them away with style.
WI 494-4 at tea.

When was the last time west indies were 494- 4?

The plan to get Tendulkar his 100th 100 may backfire unless they send him out to open, its quite possible the tets will end in a draw before he even gets a chance to bat at this rate!

When was the last time that all the top 6 score a half century? How many times have this occurred. Well done windies top 6 . I know it's a dead track but it does take some doing

This Windies side has a great future if they can stay together as a team. We can forget about Gayle and sarwan now give this team 3 more years and they will be able to compete with the best. This has to be the youngest side around, at 30 Samuels is the oldest. Braitwaite wasn't born when sachin made is debut- remarkable!

I wouldnt get too carried away about this west iNdies team. Syure Bravo has two centureis in a row, but Bopara got 3.

Certainly a step back in the right direction though, and this shows that they have agroup of players who are actually capable of playing test cricket rather than being mediocre ODI players forced to play tests. Things were very rotten in West Indies cricket, perhaps the board should get some credit for having the guts to cut loose its stars and start from scratch with players who dont have the baggage.

You cant read too much into one innings, but there are green shoots after a long decline. Its quite possibel that once they get established some of these players will start to get teh same problems as the last generation though and bceome more interested in the money of IPL than unglamorous test tours to obscure parts of the world.

That last session belonged to India. Varun Aaron, after waiting for 5 sessions, finally got his first test wicket, and then quickly added 2 more , the burst included the wicket of Darren Bravo who went for 166, one run short of what Lara scored in his 13th test match.
Then R Ashwin got 2 more including Marlon Samuels, and the West Indies rather strangely chose not to have a short and intense crack at the Indian openers.
Still, all said and done, 575 is a huge huge first innings score, and the Indian batting lineup have got their act cut out.

Peter that's true. We saw the same thing happened to bravo senior and Gayle. Ipl money got to their heads and they turned their back on Windies cricket. Ipl is destroying test cricket. Look at malinga.

Only the 5 th time in test history have each of the top 6 score half centuries

look at the pitch though. its ridiclous, test match cricket should not be played on that pitch, its awful for test match cricket.

Great achievement, isn't it?

Very well batted, they've shocked me and a few others, that is for sure!

It is poor cf, yes. Contrast that with the recent SA vs Aus series and you can see which one will keep Test cricket thriving. These pitches just blow up the averages of batsmen, cripple those of bowlers, and make people lose interest.

However, have to say I'm pleased to see the Windies cashing in for bed and breakfast, and not just folding like some of their recent sides would still have managed to.

yh full credit to windies batsman, but its sad to see, test cricket being played on 'roads'

Although the WI youngsters played superbly well, I won't read too much into it. The track was too flat, and howsoever creditable their efforts been its not good enough to write off someone like Gayle. In fact, if they get Gayle back, and replace Sammy with either a fit Jerome Taylor or Kemar Roach who are quality options with the ball, or Dwayne Bravo or Andre Russell who, both, unlike Sammy, can correctly be taggged all-rounder, I'd say they've got the right mix. Of course there is the Legend called Shiv, and ones fit, he'd walk back in.

By the way anyone remember any score other than England's 51 allout from their WI 2009 tour?

msp are you suggesting that we put Bravos centuries in the same catagory as Boparas 3 in a row?

"well done but it proves nothing"

India will get just as much if not more, with the windies bowling attack, less threatning than a fly.....

its a ridiclous test match pitch, its not even spiining like a normal indian pitch would.

well I did come in with my conspiracy theory the other day

having said that, it is disappointing they produced a flat pitch like this one, regardless of their motives for doing so (Sachin's 100th 100? loss of a day in the previous two tests, so they want this one to go the distance?). Good to see the WI batsmen score big, but unless India bat badly or Sehwag blasts a triple hundred I suspect this will be a draw...

Mad for Chelsea wrote:well I did come in with my conspiracy theory the other day

having said that, it is disappointing they produced a flat pitch like this one, regardless of their motives for doing so (Sachin's 100th 100? loss of a day in the previous two tests, so they want this one to go the distance?). Good to see the WI batsmen score big, but unless India bat badly or Sehwag blasts a triple hundred I suspect this will be a draw...

Unlikely, but Sachin to get a big fat golen duck.

However flat the pitch is, I just didn't think that the Windies batsmen had this level of mental capability to bat for that long. It is good that at least they have players who have the minds to play Test cricket, and that is sometimes more important than the technique.

Chances are Sachin wont even have toime to get his hundred as the openers ammass triple centuries after finaly having bowled Windies out Mid morning Day 5

even the tailenders should have fancied their chances of scoring big hundreds on this pitch.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:msp are you suggesting that we put Bravos centuries in the same catagory as Boparas 3 in a row?

"well done but it proves nothing"

Not quite a statement on Bravo. Think he's a class above Bopara. But the point is that there is not so much, at least not as much as some have made it out to be for WI cricket and so on. They missed Gayle big time during the first test, particularly during the 2nd innings when they failed to press home the advantage they had.
This one innings performance on a flat track don't suggest a lot, not more than those scores of 740+ and 550+ suggested in 2009.