It's no secret that the West Indies are in India to fulfil a bilateral agreement under the old Future Tour Programme. Besides, as per the new contract with the broadcasting partners and sponsors, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has to include 18 international matches in 2018-19 in its home schedule. Also, Team India, having lost 4-1 in the Test series against England, is in a preparatory mode for the four-match Test series in Australia starting November.
West Indies, ranked number eight will be taking on the still number one ranked Test side in the world, India, in a two match Test series. Not the best way to play a Test series, but then the entire series is as awkwardly skewed as the gap between the two competing sides.
With Australia on their mind, and key fast bowlers being rested after England series, the Virat Kohli-led team is going into this series with a few new faces. The opening combination will be a new one, with the preferred regular openers till recently—Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan—being discarded after their poor show in England. So, instead of the right and left hand combination at the top, Team India will have K.L. Rahul opening with teenage prodigy Prithvi Shaw.
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Rahul, who was selected as the third opener for the England tour and played at number three in the first Test match in Birmingham, graduating to regular opener in the remaining four Tests, finds himself as the senior partner in the new opening combination. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Shaw, the India under-19 skipper, will be making his Test debut merely two years after his first class debut. Shaw has been knocking on the doors of the senior team for some time now, having scored five first class hundreds in his debut year.
Kohli, returning to Team India after the much needed rest for his back, in his pre-match media conference in Rajkot, asked for solidity at the top order. His demand is well placed—it was the top order which let India down in England, putting the onus of doing the bulk of scoring on the skipper— the numero uno batsman. It didn't help that the other key Test batsmen—Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkaye Rahane—could come up with strong performances only in patches. All eyes will also be on Rishabh Pant, the wicket-keeper cum daring batsman, who scored 114 in the last Test match at the Oval in England, but his glove-work was disappointing.
Apart from some consistent performance with the bat, 20-year-old Pant will be under scrutiny while he keeps for spinners on tracks that are conducive to spin at home.
Leading spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who had a poor outing in the Oval Test, having reportedly aggravated his niggle during the match, has returned to the mix as has his partner in many matches, Ravindra Jadeja.
Jadeja, too, proved a point or two when he made a comeback to the playing XI in an away Test for India after a year at the Oval and scored a fine 86 not out and took seven wickets in the match. However, there is also wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav as an option for Kohli to exploit the home conditions. At any given time, dealing the frontline Indian spinners will be an extremely tough proposition for the visitors. With regular Test seamers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar rested, India will go in with three medium pacers—Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur. It remains to be seen whether the Indian team management comprising coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli would be tempted to play three spinners or three pacers in the absence of Hardik Pandya who is out of the team due to an injury he sustained in the Asia Cup.
The visitors are, no doubt, up against a scary opposition. At home, despite the defeats in England, India are a Tour de Force. The West Indies' last tour to India in 2014 got cancelled post arrival due to payment disputes with their cricket board. India, meanwhile, has visited them for a four-match Test series in 2016 which it won 2-0.
The West Indies side has reasons to be upbeat about Test cricket. They have had a good 2018 vis-a-vis the red ball format, with a 1-1 draw against Sri Lanka and beating Bangladesh 2-0. This is in stark contrast to the shorter formats in which they have thrived lots more. But it is also a fact that they are still standing in the bottom half of the ICC-Test rankings. But in a long time they have a bunch of players—young and tad less jaded about cricket. There are a few new faces in the side.
Their skipper Jason Holder has come into his own mainly with his bowling and with batting to some extend. However, the trio of Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope and all-rounder Roston Chase constitutes the West Indies' batting core. Pacer Shannon Gabriel has elicited words of praise from peers for the pace he has generated but the team will undoubtedly miss the services of fast bowler Kemar Roach in the first Test due to the death of his grandmother. West Indies will look for youngsters like Keemo Paul and Sherman Lewis to make an impact. Chase and Devendra Bishoo will form the spin attack.
The wickets in the series are not expected to be rank turners that were the highlights of the previous season, with the home team looking for some bounce and carry. Whether that is actually the case remains to be seen.
