India favourites in Dominica's Test debut

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Match facts

July 6-10, Dominica
Start time 1000 (1400 GMT, 1930 IST)

	Does Harbhajan have it in him to face the reality of his form slump? © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Matches: West Indies v India at Roseau Series/Tournaments: India tour of West Indies Teams: India | West Indies

Big Picture

India are 1-0 up with one to play, and with better weather might have sealed the series in Barbados, but the scoreline obscures some worrying realities. In four innings they have not once reached 300, that despite inordinate contributions from the old firm of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. India's IPL generation, with the notable exception of Suresh Raina, has stumbled in what is arguably the easiest overseas assignment a Test side can currently hope for. It is a cause for some concern, considering the inevitable change of guard the middle-order will go through in the next couple of years.

The story is inverted in the bowling department: the youngsters have pulled their weight, while the spearhead hasn't. Praveen Kumar has impressively transferred his seam mastery to the red ball; Ishant Sharma has banished the pain of two seasons of under-achievement, with a series of sparkling spells from which there should be no turning back. Harbhajan Singh, however, has slipped into a comfort zone - both for himself and the batsmen facing him. There is a chance he will not reach the 400-wicket milestone in the Caribbean, despite having needed only seven wickets to get there at the start of the series.

After the crushing disappointment in Jamaica, West Indies have plenty of positives to take out of Barbados. Fidel Edwards, on a comeback trail, is a work in progress, but there was enough evidence to suggest he is close to the finished product. Ravi Rampaul and Devendra Bishoo have stuck to the task, rarely allowing India's line-up to dictate terms. The problem for the hosts, though, lies in the batting and there were signs of improvement in Barbados. Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo - two players who exemplify the flamboyance of Caribbean batsmanship - showed they have the ability to grind out innings. It is a crucial step forward, given Ramnaresh Sarwan's alarming decline, Chris Gayle's continued absence and the drop in Shivnarine Chanderpaul's once-immense powers. Can Lendl Simmons and Adrian Barath follow the example set by Bravo and Samuels? If the openers continue to wobble against the new ball, expect India to make it 2-0 without much strife.

Form guide (most recent first)

India: DWDWL
West Indies: DLLWD

In the spotlight

MS Dhoni has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. His comment on umpiring standards in the first Test may have hastened Daryl Harper's retirement. Dhoni's batting has been an advertisement for shoddy shot-selection, and his drop of Carlton Baugh in the final session in Barbados potentially cost India a win. To make matters worse, his bowlers maintained such poor over-rates that he is now one infringement away from a match ban. His captaincy has, however, remained sharp judging by his field settings and the enterprising declaration in Barbados. Can Dhoni make a significant contribution as a player in Dominica?

Ravi Rampaul may not have the natural talent of the men who set the Caribbean ablaze in the 1980s, but he has heart and discipline - both crucial ingredients for a side seeking a revival. Rampaul's skidding action combines well with his tendency to whip the ball in, short of a length, almost inevitably on the seam. In his last four Tests, he has struck in his first over in four innings, a stat that makes him a nightmare for top-order batsmen.

The doosra is a thing of the past. The floater he mastered in the pre-doosra years has fizzled into a poorly disguised topspinner that doesn't trouble set batsmen. The bounce is sporadic, the flight and loop conspicuous by their absence, the turn is not sharp and the drift is harmless in the absence of the other factors. After 95 Tests, and in his 14th year of international cricket, Harbhajan Singh finds himself stuck in a dangerous cycle of under-achievement, perhaps ushered in by over-exposure to the shorter formats. He has the tenacity to rediscover his magic, but the first step to redemption will be admitting that he is in a slump. Does Harbhajan have it in him to confront reality?

Team news

Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar were involved in a minor collision while playing football in a training session, but both should be fit to play. Dhoni has a few tricky decisions to make ahead of the toss. Abhimanyu Mithun's honest but underwhelming effort in Barbados, coupled with the over-rate threat, could tempt him to bring legspinner Amit Mishra back, unless the pitch is unduly grassy. M Vijay and Virat Kohli have had poor series, and have subsequently lost their spots for the England tour. Will they be motivated enough to perform in the decider? Or will India be better served using Parthiv Patel and S Badrinath, who will be fresh, and eager to prove a point since they aren't in the England squad either?

India (probable): 1 Abhinav Mukund, 2 M Vijay, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Virat Kohli / S Badrinath, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Abhimanyu Mithun / Amit Mishra

With their new-ball pair working so well, West Indies may once again choose to bench Kemar Roach. Kieran Powell will make his Test debut at the pivotal No. 3 spot, but he can do no worse than the disastrously out of form Sarwan, whose place he takes.

West Indies (probable): 1 Adrian Barath, 2 Lendl Simmons, 3 Kieran Powell, 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Carlton Baugh (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Ravi Rampaul, 10 Fidel Edwards / Kemar Roach, 11 Devendra Bishoo

Pitch and conditions

The Windsor Park at Roseau, Dominica, is set to become Test cricket's 106th venue. It has been more than a year since the ground hosted the last of its four ODIs - a high-scoring thriller involving South Africa and West Indies. The more accessible - and given the happenings in Barbados, more crucial - variable is the weather, and the forecasts aren't promising: showers are predicted on each of the five days of the Test. The curator, though, says the ground has excellent drainage facilities.

The curator and West Indies captain Darren Sammy have both said there will be bounce in the pitch. There was a four-day match played at the venue between England Lions and Windward Islands in March in which two left-arm spinners - Gary Mathurin of the hosts and Danny Briggs of the visitors - shared 19 of the 39 wickets to fall in the match. The seamers got carry and bounce from the pitch in that match, which produced a result early on the fourth day.

Stats and trivia

• India have never won two Tests in a series in the West Indies. Excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, they have not won more than one Test in an away series since Pakistan in 2004
  
• Harbhajan Singh is now two wickets away from becoming the third Indian bowler and 11th overall to reach 400 wickets
  
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul averages 33.00 so far in 2011, the lowest he has averaged in any single year since 2001
  

Quotes

"His body position used to force his grip to change. Now he's more upright, and his wrist is in a better position. Only when you are confident about the technique and start bowling at the pace you are capable of, can you be at your best."
Eric Simons is pleased with the changes in Ishant Sharma's action, and the consequent results

"I have played four tours here and these have been some of the toughest tracks I have faced. Guys will learn a lot from this experience."
Rahul Dravid has words of encouragement for India's misfiring young brigade

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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'Some of the toughest pitches I've faced' - Dravid

ESPNcricinfo staff

Rahul Dravid has described India's Test series against West Indies as a tough learning experience for the younger batsmen and he hopes it will hold them in good stead for the future. India have not posted 300-plus in any of the four innings so far, but they lead the three-Test series 1-0 heading in to the final match.

"It's been tough for the batsmen," Dravid said. "It's not been easy for young batsmen to come in and face the new ball on these tracks. I have played four tours here and this has been some of the toughest tracks I have faced. Guys will learn a lot from this experience. It will hold them in good stead. As I was telling some of them they probably might not play on these kinds of tracks."

The likes of Virat Kohli and M Vijay haven't really come to the terms with the pitches and neither man has made 50 runs for the whole series. Vijay battled hard for nearly two hours in the first innings in Barbados and Kohli fought hard in the second innings but neither converted their starts. Abhinav Mukund made 48 in the second innings but couldn't carry on. Dravid felt that in the circumstances, India's batting had held up well.

"It's been a tough, hard series from the batsmen's perspective," he said. "The tracks have been slightly tilted towards bowlers, which is good. The West Indies' bowling has been good. From that perspective we have been challenged in this series and that has been good. People might say the batting hasn't fired but in the context of the series we have not done too badly. The tracks have had pace and bounce compared to the tracks they played in ODIs and tracks we played last time. If not for rain in Barbados we would have had two results."

	Rahul Dravid says the batsmen have had to work hard on difficult pitches © Associated Press Enlarge

Dravid counted Ishant Sharma as one of the big positives to emerge from this series. "Ishant has been sensational. Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Abhimanyu Mithun and Amit Mishra all have done their job. The slip catching has been good. Touch wood, I hope I don't jinx it but slip catching has been top class. These are all the positives."

Ishant suffered a light cut under his eye while playing football in the training session today but Dravid said the injury wasn't serious. "Ishant has just a small bruise. A little bit of cut. He should be fine."

Dravid said India would go in to the final Test in Dominica with a winning mindset, rather than opting for safety first and trying to keep their 1-0 lead. "The Test match is an important one," Dravid said. "We are not worrying about the series. We've got the team to win this Test match. We would have liked to win the series in Barbados but to lose 130 overs due to rain was disappointing. We were in control of that Test match, especially from the second innings onwards. This is a good chance to win a series here again. We have to put up five days of big performance here."

Dravid said he hadn't seen the pitch yet but that he believed it would have some pace and bounce. "There will be some good atmosphere - this is the first Test match here and I believe when a one-day match was played here there was good crowd," he said. "Hopefully they will come in for the Test."

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

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Rahul Dravid: My GOD of Cricket

skagrawal4k @ SportsKeeda

After his 32nd Test century in WI

Well, though this article is about Rahul Dravid, as you go through it, you might find references and comparisons to other great Indian Cricketers, most notably Sachin Tendulkar because time and again we have seen that when some columnist talks about Dravid, he invariably makes a mention of Sachin and i am no different, though vice versa may not be true. You can find enough material written about Sachin without mentioning any other cricketer. And if you find me biased, Please excuse me for that.

Not so long time ago, A young Rahul Dravid made his tryst with Destiny when he debuted at Lords’ in England(i say not so long time ago because it seems like yesterday when i was at my Maternal grand mother’s home to spend my summer vacations and i saw him bat for the first time). Time Really flies by. Rahul Dravid struck an instant cord with me. What better place could destiny choose for the arrival of My GOD of Cricket on International cricket circuit than the Mecca of Cricket itself!!
And now 15yrs later, he continues to do what he does best, that being, guiding Team India to glorious Test victories on foreign soil pretty much single-handedly and maintaining a low profile.

The Three Muskeeteers

Dravid is probably the most ‘under-talked about’ Cricketing Great. He never mind living in the shadows of The Great Sachin Tendulkar- The God of Cricket and The Maverick Sourav Ganguly- The God on Off-side as said by Dravid himself. His stint with getting over-shadowed started way back on his debut itself. Since then, its been a trend. Whenever Dravid excelled, someone over-shadowed him be it Sachin, Ganguly, Laxman, Sehvag or anybody else. And this has happened on more than one occasion. What people don’t realise is that on all such occasions, there were different people on one end, but there was one person consistently on the other end. Silently going about his work, Dravid carved his own Legend in the Tales of Indian Cricket.
When he first started, Dravid was tagged as a Test Specialist, and probably he was, because that was his natural style of playing. He wasn’t a gifted talent like Sachin but he adapted to the needs of the current style of cricket. He wasn’t Born Great but He became Great.
Before being dumped from Indian ODI team unceremoniously after the 7 match ODI series against Aussies in 2007 in favor of promoting the ‘Young Guns’, he had gone on to score 10,000 + runs in One day Cricket. But that still doesn’t deter people from saying that he is a test player. As they say, First Impression is the Last Impression.
We Indians by default are extremists and our minds are not flexible. We just don’t want to see how this man went against his natural play and adapted himself to the needs of ODI cricket and actually developed as a Finisher batting at Position 5 or 6 for India. He even donned the wicket-keeping gloves for the sake of the team. While some people call it a compromise to salvage his place in the team, i choose to call it ‘Sacrifice’ because it seems so out of place to say that a man who went on to score 10,000 runs and who was the vice-captain of the side was actually trying to salvage his place. But in Indian Cricket, there are no points for Adaptability. Once a Test Player, always a Test Player. Even the IPL team which was assimilated by him in the first season was termed as a Test Team. Though everybody forgot that the same team went on to play finals in IPL-2.
But nothing matters. People still love to mock Rahul. The other day, when RR was playing against MI at their home ground and trounced them by 10 wickets, at one point, Rahul was batting on 17 and Shane Watson on 71. A guy in my Hostel Common Room made this interesting observation and the other guys felt it their National Duty to laugh at it. I felt really annoyed and wanted to ask him, where the hell were you the day when RR had 84 runs on board against CSK and Dravid had scored 66 of those?? Ironically, India’s 2nd fastest 50 in ODI has been scored by Dravid.
But i guess his Credentials regarding Faster Format of the game will always remain doubtful. and i will never understand why. Because the stats tell me that He scores just 2runs/100 balls slower than the ODI specialist Sourav Ganguly. Even in IPL, he is the 13th highest run-getter, with a strike rate better than the likes of Kallis, Ganguly, Gibbs, Duminy and Graeme Smith, and an average better than Gilchrist, Yusuf pathan, Yuvraj, Uthappa and many other so called Specialists of Faster format. He was the highest run-scorer for RR this season for God’s sake. I guess its just a Taboo that Rahul has to live with forever. Not that he minds it, but i do being his Staunch Fan.
I wonder why he dont deserve to be in the ODI Team or Why He didn’t deserve to touch the WC Trophy or Why He didn’t deserve to be retained by his IPL Team or Why He doesn’t deserve as much money at the auctions as the ‘Gods’ and the ‘Guns’ or Why He doesn’t deserve the world’s attention or Why the commentators, expert columnists, fans, media, and franchisees shouldn’t go ga-ga over Rahul Dravid. Why??
May be because he is not entertaining because to be entertaining, you need to dance on the wicket(like Kevin Peterson) or down the wicket, because he is not vocal or expresses his emotions in public, he is not flashy, he doesn’t give tantrums, He doesn’t give you stare in the eyes with Cameras taking close shots of your face, he doesn’t have hook-ups with bollywood heroines(the only thing he hooks beautifully is a bouncer), or may be because He doesn’t pull of his shirt, may be because he is not surrounded by controversies. May be his biggest sin was playing in the era of The great Sachin, because in any other era, may be 10 years before Sachin or 10 years after Sachin, it would have been Dravid’s era, or may be his biggest sin is that He manages all those runs in IPL and Tests with just 19 sixes each.
If only he had learnt to hit 6′s, If only he was as Lucky as Dhoni, If only he had learnt not to be a Gentleman both on and off the field, if only he was flamboyant enough to be in news for all the right or the wrong reasons, He would have been something else. May be then he would have been a hit amongst the Media and the Corporate franchisees. But Thank god he is not all of that because then he probably wouldn’t have been my God of Cricket.
Now Dravid is just Playing Tests, 14-20 innings in an year, always under scrutiny. One failure, and people want to hang his boots till death. Unlike other players who have the chance to redeem themselves in the ODIs and T20s if they fail in tests.
Unfazed by all these questions and scrutinies, Dravid is still silently going about doing his job, that being guiding India to Famous Test wins on Foreign Soil.
Soon he will be standing at the same place where he started his journey in International Test Arena for the 4th and probably the last time. Another circle will be completed. From there on, how long Dravid will extend the arc, nobody knows. But sooner or later He will hang his boots and so will Sachin Tendulkar. They Both will Walk away. One with all the glory and Spot-lights, other will just walk away into oblivion helding his head high. Rahul could never manage to be in media spotlight even when he is/was active in cricket. How can we expect him to remain in limelight after his retirement(Probably with Sachin around, Media has enough on plate. They don’t feel like talking about anyone else. Thats why Sachin completed his 50th 100 in Test matches and everybody rejoiced, but Dravid completed 12,000 runs in the same match and nobody realised). One will remain etched in memories of crores of Indians with the list of all the records and the Tag of ‘God Of Cricket’, other will just vanish.
But one thing makes me wonder. Would Sachin be able to amass all those glory and records had Rahul not been there?

Case Study: India vs England at Leeds in August 2002. A deadly Pitch and some furious bowling. Rahul Dravid and Sanjay Bangar put up a brave front. Bangar went on to score 90 odd runs while Dravid made a fighting 148. But in the Same innings Sachin scored 193 runs. Inspite of which, it was Dravid who was awarded Man of the match award because everybody realised that the amount of Grit, Courage, Struggle and Sweat that went into those 193 was not even half of what went into those 148.

The above was a Prime example of how Dravid usually makes it easier for the later batsmen to score runs. Because by the time Sachin or Sourav arrived, the bowlers were already tired and frustrated, the bounce and movement had decreased and the dew had evaporated.
I wonder if Dravid was not there to score those 148, could Sachin still have gone on to score those 193?? May be..May be not. We will never know but Dravid has played not one but many such innings.
As they say, In a Temple, Even ‘God’ lives behind and protected by ‘The Wall’. If there was no ‘Wall’ to weather the storm as Dravid himself puts it, i don’t know how much greatness could the ‘God’ have achieved. There is no Genius who is genius enough or a Super computer which is advanced enough to estimate or compute Dravid’s contributions in Sachin’s Greatness. And we will never know. But i dont care.

The Writing is on The 'Wall'

For me Rahul Dravid is My God of Cricket. When i stand outside the ‘Temple of Cricket’, i wouldn’t care about the ‘God’ sitting inside. I’d rather bow to the weared and teared ‘Wall’ outside and walk away.



Currently, Cricket has become a dirty Game of Slogging, edges and ugly unorthodox 6′s and 4′s. They play all sorts of weird looking shots which resemble more like Tennis, Golf or Baseball shots. There is also one Helicopter Shot. Few people call it Gully Cricket. I call it Ugly Cricket.  Thank God, I have Rahul Dravid. His Drives are still awesome and his Hooks, Pulls and Square Cuts are still Pure Divine. I’m watching Cricket as long as Rahul Dravid is playing the shots.
Love You RD.  But more than that, I Respect you for all that you have done for the Cricket, Team India and for me. You are a Hero. May be unsung, but still a Hero.

Written By : skagrawal4k   587 Reads

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Why Rahul Dravid is my favourite cricketer

k77sujith @ The Roar 

Coming from India, I am sure it surprises many that I haven’t mentioned my favourite cricketer as Sachin Tendulkar.
Make no mistake, I am a huge fan of the Little Master and I hope there would never come a time when he decides to call it quits.
However, there is one man who has always been in the shadows of Saurav Ganguly and Tendulkar, one who has quietly and religiously gone about his business – ‘The Wall’ Rahul Dravid.
Despite being recognized as one of the most mentally strong cricketers the game has ever seen, he has always preferred to stay away from the spotlight and let his performances do the talking.
Dravid, along with Ganguly, burst onto the scene with his brilliant batting efforts in a Test match at Lord’s against England in 1996. He exhibits brilliant batting technique, be it defence or offence and is supremely sincere and dedicated to his craft.
Dravid has constantly improved his technique over the years and has adapted to the different modes of the game. Like the Little Master, Dravid is a highly disciplined cricketer who has seldom been embroiled in controversy.
Dravid is a hard-as-nails gentleman who commands respect on the field, not just from his team-mates but from the opposition as well. Ask Allan Donald!
He is not identified with flamboyance when it comes to batting; the Sehwags and the Gayles handle that feature of the game. Dravid is duly respected for his determination, temperament and endurance at the crease.
He is a master when it comes to wearing out the opposition in the extended form of the game and works exceptionally hard in executing his role in conventional fashion.
One can argue pointing out that his batting is mind-numbing but having cemented the all-important number three position in the batting order for a long time, he is expected to hold up one end while the other batsmen take their chances playing around him. And how well he has executed and glorified this role for over 15 years at the top level against all international teams.
More importantly, he has done this, playing away from home, when most of his team-mates have struggled to cope with the bounce and pace on foreign pitches.
It is also worth pointing out that Dravid is a very dependable slip fielder and has accounted for numerous dismissals in tandem with Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and other pacers, fielding in the slip cordon.
Dravid has been a pillar of strength and support for the team and has on many occasions bailed the team out of trouble through sheer application.
Who can forget his contribution of 180 runs along with VVS Laxman in one of the most dramatic Test matches in Kolkata in 2001 when the two of them took India to victory from the brink of defeat?
I would run out of space and superlatives if I had to hand-pick his best innings as there are several of them.
Despite being a very accomplished player, throughout his career, Dravid has had to deal with a lot of criticism from both the media and selectors for his ‘inability’ to compete in the one-day format.
It is true that initially, he did struggle to come to grips with the shorter version of the game. He was deemed incapable as his detractors thought he could not rotate the strike and was unable to score runs at a brisk pace.
In typical Dravidesque fashion, without making a noise about the entire backlash, he took it all in his stride, put in the hard yards, worked on his weaknesses, honed his skills and evolved to become one of the most reliable one-day batsmen in the game.
The fact that he has scored over 10,000 runs in both forms of the game easily propels him to the list of greats.
Without doubt, Dravid is a legend and a perfect role model for wannabe cricketers. Moreover, he is a picture of discipline and integrity and a living example of someone who never rests on past success and constantly strives for improvement and he does not consider himself bigger than the sport.
‘The Wall’, as they say, never crumbles.

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Dravid Statistical Highlights After 2nd Test

# Rahul Dravid  (55) has recorded his second highest innings at Bridgetown -- the highest being 78 in March 1997.
# Dravid's knock is his 11th fifty against the West Indies.
# Dravid is the first player to complete 200 runs in the present series, totalling 212 (ave.53.00), including one hundred and one fifty.
# Dravid (6996 at an average of 53.81 in 85 Tests) needs just four runs to complete his 7,000 runs overseas.
# Dravid now holds an Indian record with his 60th fifty, eclipsing Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 59 fifties.
# Dravid is the second batsman to post 60 fifties in Tests, joining Allan Border (63).
# Rahul Dravid is the first player to appear in 200 innings at number three in Test cricket.

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