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Journalism of Courage
India would be banking on the winning mindset of their youngsters to subdue a resurgent West Indies who are looking to extend their triumphant run when the two teams clash in the five-match limited overs series starting tomorrow.
India captain Rahul Dravid said that the youngsters, who had brought about a great depth and transformation in the side, would go into the series without any baggage of history. He said nine of these youngsters have known only the winning ways and that has been a very important component in the team’s overall mindset.
“Coming over here, they have only heard about West Indies and the great venues and testing conditions, and that is why they were so impressive in Montego Bay,” he told reporters at the pre-match conference.
West Indies skipper Brian Lara admitted that the Indians would be a different test altogether compared to the Zimbabweans whom they thrashed 5-0 in the recent home series. “The true test is now against the Indians who are one of the top teams in the world. But winning is a contagious habit and we hope to continue the trend in the forthcoming series as well,” he said.
Lara said that the rotation policy which has worked well so far could be ignored if the team gets off to a winning start against the Indians. “We have rotated the team so far and it worked well against Zimbabwe for it allowed cricketers like Carlton Bough Jr to come through and cement their places in the side.
“But if we start winning we would go for a settled side because we want to fix up different slots,” Lara said on the eve of the first ODI here.
The Indian captain saw the tour as an opportunity for the team’s emerging talents to hone their skills and become better players. Lara said his team would be keen to maintain the hold on its home record but was aware of India’s might, even without Sachin Tendulkar.
Meanwhile, Lara is all set to curb the visitors’ strong batting line-up on a greentop. Lara will take a gamble on his quick men and hope the grass on the pitch at Sabina Park is retained to expose the only perceptible weakness in the visitors’ line-up.
India have won 18 of their last 23 ODIs and at full strength, they only came a cropper when South Africans twice caught them hopping on lively wickets in India. The impression was also reinforced in the Karachi Test and again on a slightly bouncy track in Mumbai—on both occasions India finished on the losing side.
Both Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are still seen as batsmen who are not entirely comfortable against rising, quick deliveries and the jury is still out on young talents like Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni as far as this aspect of their games is concerned.
Lara is well aware that low scores in one-day cricket consistently occur when wickets are falling regularly. And he feels he has the firepower in his quick bowlers — Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor and Corey Collymore — to make that happen.
