India face test of character

ST. JOHN'S (ANTIGUA): Their reputation in tatters, India will rely on their experienced campaigners to restore their pride when they take on the West Indies in the four-Test series starting here on Friday.

Rahul Dravid's men have a point or two to prove after the humiliating 4-1 loss in the one-day series, but they will have to contend with a home team that is on a high and seems to have rediscovered its old glory and winning ways.

Indians landed in the Caribbean as the favourites and were looking for their first series win in the islands since 1971. Instead, they now face a test of character and will be fighting tooth and nail to avoid the 'away loss' syndrome.

The Tests will also show how far the visitors have learnt from their failures in the one-dayers, which basically stemmed from their inability to adapt to the conditions.

The Caribbean pitches have proved to be, surprisingly, too slow even to the players of subcontinent where wickets are not fast by any yardstick.

Patience is the key on such tracks, and neither the batsmen nor the bowlers displayed this virtue in the limited overs series.

The batsmen did not put their heads down and went for bigger shots, while the bowlers either banged in too short or stretched too full -- the result being modest totals and easy pickings for the hosts.

And, thanks to some curious selection policies, India will be without their best bowler on view, Ajit Agarkar.

Dravid, however, believes that the longer version of the game demands certain different qualities and says the Indians have it.

"When we analysed the one-day series we realise that two or three critical areas were different to what we experience in Tests."

The big question that faces Dravid and Chappell is the combination, especially the bowling make-up.

The team is still undecided as to whether to play both the leading spinners - Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

 "The two are quality spinners but even though the wickets are slow here they don't spin as much as it does in India," Dravid said.

"Going by our experience, they start getting slower and slower. Even for a spinner, it's a challenge because a lot of time bat and pad edges don't carry."

Dravid still felt his side had the quality in batting which would allow runs to be scored quickly and defend for long periods if the situation so required.

"We have batsmen like Sehwag, Laxman, Yuvraj, Jaffer and me who are not blockers. We can score runs quickly but obviously we can't put a benchmark on the number of runs we must score in a day.

 "We also have batsmen who can defend for long periods and bail us out like we did in the first two Tests in Pakistan and then in Nagpur against England."

The two-day warm up game might have served some purpose as Wasim Jaffer and V V S Laxman, in their first match of the tour, got among runs.

Irfan Pathan's form also has been a concern and Chappell said as much the other day.

"He is struggling because he is down in confidence at the moment. He is probably trying a little bit too hard which is easy to do when things are not going well. We are hoping he can turn it around quickly," Chappell said the other day.

Brian Lara's men, on the other hand, go into the Tests with their confidence sky high, thanks to 10 wins in the last 11 one-dayers.

Having downed the tourists in the one-dayers, the hosts would be looking to deliver the killer punch in the Tests.

Lara had hinted at the end of the one-day series that he would roll out a 'green carpet' to nail the Indians in the Test series.

Incidentally, India's defeat at Barbados on their previous visit in 2002 came on a track with a tinge of grass.