With India’s tour to the Caribbean Islands less than two weeks away, the stage is set for some riveting Test cricket action, something that would see the subcontinental nation play as many as 17 Tests this season. After a one-week preparatory camp at the National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru, the Indian cricket team left for the West Indies on July 5 to lock horns with the Caribbean side for a 4-Test series.
To be led by Virat Kohli, the 17-man contingent has plenty of new faces as compared to the team that toured the Windies in 2011, which was India’s last tour there. Only four of the current Test team members – Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay and Ishant Sharma – were a part of the last contingent that toured the nation five years back. A look at their performances on that tour would give us a brief idea about the relative comfort that each of those four players has while playing on Caribbean soil.
Ishant Sharma
The 2011 tour to the West Indies was one of the crowning jewels of Ishant Sharma’s career, as he wrecked havoc amidst the West Indian lineups and ended up with 22 wickets from three Tests and was adjudged as the Man of the Series. On pace-friendly Caribbean wickets, Sharma’s pace, and the movement that he extracted from the surface as well as in the air proved out to be lethal for the inexperienced West Indies batsmen. The then 22-year-old picked up 6 wickets in the first Test in Jamaica, 10 wickets – with the then career-best haul of 6/55 – in the second Test at Barbados and six more wickets in the third Test at Dominica.
Clearly, the pace-friendly tracks of the Caribbean had suited the right-arm fast bowler, and when he returns to bowl on similar surfaces, he would love to replicate those performances. The 27-year-old has 201 Test wickets to his name from 68 Tests, and would look forward to this tour as a preparatory ground for the 13 home Tests that India are scheduled to play this season.
Amit Mishra
Under the able guidance of his senior pro, Anil Kumble, the 33-year-old leg-spinner would look to make up for his lack of match practice on the previous tour – wherein he had featured in just one of the three Tests that were organised – with good performances on this tour and prepare himself well for the stretch of home Tests to follow. In the first Test, during the 2011 tour, Mishra picked up 2 wickets in the first innings and as many wickets in the second innings. However, realizing the pace-friendly nature of the surface, India played with three fast bowlers and a solitary spinner in the next two Tests, with Abhimanyu Mithun replacing Mishra for the 2nd Test and Munaf Patel replacing Mithun for the 3rd Test.
However, the nature of the surfaces in the Caribbean has mellowed down a bit, and one can expect some assistance for the spinners as well. Hence, this time, the trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and the leg-spinner from Haryana in discussion are expected to share the burden of the bowling attack. Mishra, who for most parts of his career was overshadowed by Kumble, has managed to pick up 65 wickets from 18 Tests that he has played for India.
Murali Vijay
One of the epitomes of consistency and solidity in the Indian batting line-up, especially at the top of the order, Murali Vijay, didn’t have the best of tours back in 2011, as he failed to register a single score in excess of 50 from the 6 innings that he played. Opening the Indian innings along with Abhinav Mukund, his Tamil Nadu teammate, Vijay could not provide India with solid starts, which resulted in extra pressure on the middle order as well as the lower middle order. Consequently, the likes of Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, and Suresh Raina had to step up to revive the Indian innings in each of the three Tests. Scores of 8, 0, 11, 3, 5 and 45 from 6 innings meant that Vijay managed just 72 runs in the series at an average of 12, and was nowhere near to being at his best.
However, Vijay has come a long way since that tour, and over the past 5 years has matured into a terrific Test match opening batsman. The 32-year-old has been one of India’s most consistent batsmen over the past few years, especially during overseas tours, with the most noticeable performances as a testament of the fact being his Test centuries in England and Australia in 2014 and 2015 respectively, and a 97 against South Africa in Durban in 2013. During the last Test series that India played – against the Proteas at home – Vijay, along with Ajinkya Rahane, was one of the most prolific batsmen for India, on surfaces that were rank turners from Day 1. The right-handed batsman has 2360 runs from 37 Tests at 41.09 with 6 Test hundreds and 12 fifties.
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli’s superhuman efforts in 2016 that have propelled him to the topmost echelons of the international batting pantheon would be reasons good enough for that extra bit of pressure that would be on him to keep performing consistently, even in the whites. However, the state was not so good for the then 22-year-old batsman when he last toured the Caribbean nation. Scores of 4, 15, 0, 27, and 30 from 5 innings accumulated to 81 runs at an average of 16.20 for Kohli after that tour which wasn’t anywhere close to his best performances. That it was his debut Test series must also be remembered as should his performances his Test cricket in recent times.
The 27-year-old captain of the Indian Test team has 2994 runs from 41 Tests at 44.02 with 11 centuries and 12 half centuries and would love to translate his run of consistent run-scoring from the shortest format of the game to the longest version of it. Occupying the crucial No. 4 position in the batting line up, Kohli’s workload would include building the Indian innings as well as consolidating the innings if the team suffers early setbacks in the form of wickets. For India to win the series, three of their most experienced batsmen, Kohli, Vijay and Rahane would have to contribue with the bat in a significant manner.
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