Green is what the doctor ordered

Man-to-man, India has the strength to match that line now in Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and VRV Singh — Sreesanth’s ankle injury has clouded his chances. But will the batting hold up? Maybe, VVS Laxman has the answer.

He’s the only batsman in the current squad to have played twice here before — Laxman led the team, with Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid taking a break, against a Busta Cup XI in 2002 and was captain of the India A side that took on Windward Islands in a Carib Beer Cup match a year later.

India drew their match, barely, after collapsing for 150 to the Cup XI’s 437 (Wavell Hinds 175) in the first innings but India A lost badly, by seven wickets.

Laxman’s scores: 4 for India, 2 and a topscore of 46 for India A. Which means the Hyderabadi will be carrying some extra baggage into the second Test after his 29 and 31 in the Antigua Test — he looked settled and ready to build when two loose shots, an attempted cover drive and a mistimed sweep, cut him down.

‘‘For what I can recall, it is a good wicket. The last time I played here, it was a bit on the slow side. But I don’t know what’s in store this time,’’ says Laxman. Harbhajan Singh, Wasim Jaffer and Anil Kumble had a go here, too, in 2002.

‘‘We will clip the grass a bit, not too much. It will have even bounce. It won’t go two ways, that’s sure,’’ says Kent Craston, curator at Beausejour, which is hosting just its third Test since the ground opened in 2002.

The 13,000-seater stadium, set amidst the beautiful hills of this little tourist island, is one of the showpieces for the World Cup. ‘‘We have been working on this ground every day since the first match in 2002,’’ says Craston.

The West Indies, incidentally, have a great one-day record here, having won eight out of 11 matches so far. And their top two Test batsmen have happy memories of this pitch — Brian Lara (202) against Sri Lanka in 2003 and Chris Gayle (141 and 53) versus Bangladesh the year after. But they did suffer a bit on an embarrassment in one of the two drawn Tests — they fell short by 54 runs to Bangladesh’s first innings score of 416.

Beausejour has another history lesson to offer. Both those Tests were hit by rain, with the Lanka match getting virtually washed out on the final day. ‘‘Yes, that’s the worry, this time too,’’ admits Craston, looking up at the darkening clouds.