Chilled out Indians look to apply finishing touches
BASSETERRE (ST KITTS): India will look to plug the holes and provide the finishing touches to their preparation for the four-Test series when they take on West Indies Cricket Board Presidents’ XI in the final warm-up match starting here on Thursday.
The three-day match will more or less decide the final playing XI for India and both the batsmen and bowlers will look to make their performance count and earn a place when Kumble and Kohli sit down to select the team for the first Test at Antigua starting July 21.
India were far from impressive in their last two-day warmup game as their pace battery struggled with their inconsistent show and it will be the last chance for Kumble’s boys to make an impression.
PACE BATTERY
The Indian seamers, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, who is returning to competitive cricket after a long injury lay-off, began well but lost the plot after sometime as they struggled with their line and length.
They could not push the batsmen to play their deliveries and bowled too wide outside the off stump, something which the pacers will have to sort out in the three-day warm-up game at Warner Park.
Ishant Sharma, who also has had a long lay-off, and Umesh Yadav will also look to grind it out as the duo is expected to be key members of Kohli’s gameplans.
It will be interesting to see if Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur gets a chance to roll his arms over in this game.
While the seamers were inconsistent, leg-spinner Amit Mishra was impressive and made life difficult for the WICB Presidents’ XI batsmen and was on a hattrict after he dismissed Rajendra Chandrika and Jermaine Blackwood in successive balls.