Under bright skies in Ahmedabad, it all looked gloomy and drab for the West Indies.
With still around 25 minutes to go for Tea on Day Three, Kuldeep Yadav pouched a simple opportunity provided by Jayden Seales in the second attempt, giving Shubman Gill his first Test win as India captain on home soil. Having gone to sleep with a healthy lead of 286, India declared their first innings at 448/5. That proved more than enough, as India got back to winning ways at home, having gone 12 months without a win in their own territory. The innings and 140-run defeat was West Indies’ fourth in the last five Tests they have played on Indian soil as it isn’t showing any signs of getting better in New Delhi next week where the second Test begins on October 10.
Like in the case of the first innings, this was another outing where the West Indies could not bat out two sessions. And as has been through the course of the Test, India were once again dominant, showing their ruthless side again with the ball. The challenge that lay ahead of the West Indies on Day Three was to see whether they could get anywhere close to making India bat again. Having given seven of their first innings wickets to the seamers on Day 1, two days later they gave as many to the spinners. That it was Ravindra Jadeja, with his orthodox left-arm slow, who inflicted the most damage, even more than the chinaman Kuldeep Yadav indicated West Indies’ batting pedigree, rather the lack of it.
Much has been said about the continuous slide of the West Indies, and at the centre of it has been their lack of application with the bat. In the last two Test series before this, in South Africa and at home, they have struggled in terms of getting beyond the first new ball. That the story continued here came as no surprise as batting in Indian conditions against this attack is fraught with unfamiliar challenges. At the forefront of the problem is the talent drain in West Indies batting, where none of their top seven who played here had an average in the 30s. Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s 29.89 is the highest in their batting ranks, a fair reflection of the output they had with the bat here where they gifted their wickets.
“The pitches in the Caribbean are not really batsman-friendly. So, guys don’t really bat for long periods and score those big scores. And then, the outfields in the Caribbean are really slow. So, when you hit the ball in the gaps and you take it half-court, you probably end up struggling to get two. So, those are just some of the problems that we are faced with in the Caribbean. That’s why you see guys averaging so low,” West Indies captain Roston Chase said.
Apart from Alick Athanaze, who looked assured, the rest all had a timid defence as their only ally. The key ingredients of Test match batting – leaves, defence, overseeing a testing spell, grinding hard, seizing the moments, building a partnership – were all found wanting once again on Saturday.
With the Indian attack being relentless in terms of applying pressure, West Indies batsmen didn’t seem to trust their game to survive in these conditions, playing either tentatively or going in search of big shots that none of the Indian attack seemed worried about.
So, after Mohammed Siraj gave the opening with the help of an excellent diving catch by Nitish Kumar Reddy at square-leg, Jadeja took charge. First up, he had John Campbell work one straight to B Sai Sudharsan at short-leg. Then, Brandon King couldn’t help himself from poking one on the off-stump channel as the left-arm spinner after testing him with a few straighter ones, sent one that just turned a little to get the edge.
Immediately in the next over, Kuldeep broke through the defence of Chase, who was guilty of playing the wrong line. The slide continued for the Windies when Shai Hope’s eyes lit up after spotting a loose, short ball from Jadeja early. He went for an expansive cut, but managed only a top-edge because of the extra bounce with Yashavi Jaiswal taking a sharp diving catch at short third man. Having gone to lunch at 66/5, the misery was over in little over an hour.
“Obviously we had a poor batting display. This has been something that has been plaguing us for the past two series. We’ve not been able to at least bat 80 overs, bat a day or even get at least 250 or 300 runs on the board. So, anytime you win a toss in a Test match and bat and you don’t bat out the first day, you’re always going to be hanging above,” Chase said.
For India, this was the Test where everything went their way. Despite being up against a weak opponent, they had plenty to prove across all three departments. And in the three innings, they showed promising signs of regaining the lost territory.
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