In For A Long Haul

The tour of the West Indies threw up plenty of options for captain Virat Kohli ahead of the 13 Test matches that India play over the next few months

- Chetan Narula

As Queen’s Park Oval celebrated its 125th anniversary, the fourth Test between India and West Indies was abandoned after a mere 22 overs. Persistent showers and shoddy work by the ground staff meant no play would be possible for the remaining four days of the match as both sides remained in the dressing room, twiddling thumbs.

Yet, it wasn’t an entirely futile exercise. Instead, from India’s point of view, it proved to be a bridge between the series gone past and the long Test season on the horizon. The tour of the Caribbean was about shedding the rust accumulated over the past nine months playing limited-overs cricket and getting ready for the back-to-back challenges at home. With an unassailable 2–0 lead, everything about the fourth Test was central to what had been achieved on this tour and what needed to be done in the months to come.

Team selection is the obvious starting point. The 11 picked for the fourth Test in Trinidad was a departure from the team management’s strategy of playing five bowlers. Going in with seven batsmen gave an inkling of the strategy going ahead. Most important, this selection was seen as a shoot-out between Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara, as both were surprisingly included in the playing 11.

India weren’t able to pin down the No. 3 spot in this series. Pujara let two opportunities go waste in Antigua and Jamaica, particularly in the second Test at Sabina Park. He scored 46 runs off 159 balls, a throwback to the classical era, but times have changed, particularly in the Caribbean. The cricket here beats to T20 drums and despite the team management defending his particular style, Sharma was picked for the third Test.