West Indies skipper Darren Sammy has backed his young team to deliver in all departments when they face India in the upcoming One-Day series, which bowls off today. Speaking yesterday ahead of the first match, the allrounder said the young players will get their chance to impress and perform on the international stage. The opening match will be at the Barbati Stadium in Cuttack followed by games in Visakhapatnam (Friday), Ahmedabad (Monday), Indore (December 8) and Chennai (December 11).
Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Anthony Martin and Danza Hyatt are key members have joined the West Indies One-Day squad, while the selectors have called up new boys Jason Mohammed and Sunil Narine. “We will be having a set of new players in the One-Day squad, and they are fresh after a few days’ rest, and I hope that has helped them to stay sharp. But then again we need a collective effort to beat India, as we can’t depend upon one or two individuals,” Sammy said. “Pollard’s inclusion is quite a blessing for us, as apart from his undoubted skills, he knows the Indian conditions well because of playing in the IPL. So, we would like to tap his brain for some information.”
He hoped that the absence of his Indian counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni from the five-match One-Day series would help his team. “Definitely, it will be a boost for us. Dhoni is not just a good captain, but he’s also someone who contributes massively for India at number five or six position. So, it’s something we would like to exploit, but having said that we need to play very good, consistent cricket to beat India at their home.” West Indies have been hugely competitive in the last two series against India, home and away, and Sammy said they have taken a lot of positives from them. “We are happy that we haven’t been mere pushovers against a vastly talented and experienced side like India. In the One-Day and Test series at home, we had managed to compete very well with India, and here also we created a lot of opportunities in the Test series. “But now we need to exploit those opportunities, and get some good results. Yes, we are quite confident that we can compete with India on an equal footing in this series,” he said.
India’s previous home One-Dayer took place in front of a sparse crowd at the Eden Gardens, reinforcing fears over the quantity of cricket being played, but with today’s match taking place at the smaller cricketing centre of Cuttack, a jam-packed stadium is expected. Even though the the biggest crowd-pullers like Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar are missing, tickets sales at the Barabati Stadium have been brisk, and even the practice sessions drew plenty of spectators. A full-strength India would be expected to roll over West Indies at home, but they are missing at least four of their headliners. In addition, they have lost the most experienced bowler in their squad, Praveen Kumar—he was ruled out of the first three One-Dayers with an injury. That means the most seasoned of the quicks is Vinay Kumar, all of 11 One-DOyers old, giving the stand-in captain Virender Sehwag something of a challenge. India are also missing two of their finishers in Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, giving the likes of Rohit Sharma an audition for a permanent place in the hugely competitive middle order.
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WI SQUAD: Darren Sammy (Captain), Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Anthony Martin, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons
INDIA TEAM: Virender Sehwag (capt), Parthiv Patel (wk), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Varun Aaron , Umesh Yadav
