India set start their test series in West Indies prior to the long home season with the new head Coach in the set up, the team is willing to play the brand of Cricket that brings crowd back to the stadium as their major priority. While Windies struggling to set standards high in the longer format, but they seek to transform their limited overs success into longer format as the first of four test series set to begin on Thursday at Antigua.
Lot of expectations have been looming over Indian Cricket with Anil Kumble set for his first stint as a Coach and there isn't any delay from him in implementing his visions in form of Buddy system or 1 hour batting challenge earlier to this tour preparation in Bangalore. He along with Test Captain Kohli have new challenge to be achieve in building the team more stable in all departments with postive mindset.
Meanwhile India had a great time in test Cricket in recent times, where they won their previous two test series against Sri Lanka away from home and with south Africa at home. But it's time for them to shift the gears from T20 format to the longest format and they got lot time to adapt to conditions better, being played two practice games prior to the test series.
On the other hand Windies are building on confidence with their recent success in World T20 and at home in Tri-Nation series. Although the red ball Cricket will be a different challenge considering their poor form in this format both from away and at home. Now it's all about building a team and identifying talent that can last for 5 days in any given situation. Where Phil Simons have to tackle the biggest challenge since his appointment and he is optimistic about transforming the team with the recent success.
While the pitch an Antigua known for slowness and with some grass covering on the eve of the match it might hold up the pitch. But it's true nature will be unleashed as the game progress, where it turns square and keeps low and slow. So it is not easy to score runs nor to pick wickets, as the both coaching staff press hard on patience for batsmen and consistency for bowlers on the eve of first test.
India has abounded talent to challenge the Windies squad, but they seek to find the perfect combination according to the conditions on offer. Where Virat likely to go with 5 five bowlers and that choice leave Rohit out of playing XI, while Rahul who is in some form has to compete with Dhawan for pairing up with Vijay at the top. While 3 spinners likely to feature in the squad with the known nature of the pitch.
Considering their form Windies as to fight really hard to challenge the visitors who are looking to ride high, but Jerome Taylor retirement from longer format leaves them a huge role fill and presence only front spinner leaves Bishoo a huge role to tackle. While batting too looks quite inexperienced apart from Bravo and Samuels and the pace attack as to be more consistent considering their poor show in Australia.
At end it's all about becoming Zen masters and being patient both with the bat and ball, where the slowness reminds to classical test Cricket ahead if both sides compete equally. While the Contest lies on how Windies Batsmen handle Indian bowlers in testing conditions.
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