No sooner did he step into the packed press conference room than Darren Sammy emulated one of those preachers on Miracle Channel with his arms partly aloft. “Sachiiiiiin, Sachiiiiin,” he giggled. “This is great,” the West Indian skipper added.
The sense of occasion wasn’t lost on the ever-smiling all-rounder. He may be the leader of the visiting team, but Sammy knows what this series is all about. The conspiracy theories surrounding the two-match Test series starting on Wednesday are plenty. One is that the BCCI organised this hastily-arranged series to teach Haroon Lorgat and Cricket South Africa a lesson.
Another one says the board wanted Sachin Tendulkar to script the final chapter of his career on home soil.
Be that as it may, India and the West Indies are ready to have a crack at each other in what is being billed as a once-in-a-millennium series in honour of a one-in-a-billion superstar.
Truth be told, there is more to the series than just Tendulkar and his swansong. When the West Indies arrived on these shores two years ago, they threatened to spoil India’s party on more than one occasion and yet found themselves on the wrong side of the 2-0 scoreline.
In the third Test in Mumbai, which could have produced all four results (win, loss, draw or tie), the visitors had denied Tendulkar his 100th ton. Like Sammy said, that was the time when Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were still around, as were Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
This team looks generationally different but has already beaten Australia 4-0. The top order wears a settled look with Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay holding fort. Cheteshwar Pujara will hope to add to his aura of being a run machine. Tendulkar will, of course, bat at his favourite No. 4 position before Virat Kohli, slated to come in next, assumes that role after November 18. Rohit Sharma looks set to make his long-awaited Test debut and he will be followed by MS Dhoni at No. 7.
With no Ravindra Jadeja, two of the three spinners — R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra — will have the opportunity to make merry on a pitch that Sammy branded “fourth-day” with “cracks”.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will take the new ball, but who will partner him remains a mystery. It can’t — shouldn’t, rather — be Ishant Sharma who has been persisted with for way too long. It might be a toss-up between comeback man Umesh Yadav and the highly impressive Mohammed Shami.
The West Indians are no pushovers, mind you. They have the dangerous Chris Gayle, the elegant Darren Bravo, the maverick Marlon Samuels, and of course, the ever-dependable Shivnarine Chanderpaul who averages over 66 against India and more than 80 in India.
Sammy is likely to play two “out-and-out fast bowlers” and spinners Shane Shillingford and Veerasammy Permaul.
Dhoni claimed the team’s focus “has been brilliant so far” and that the boys are “not thinking about anything or anyone apart from cricket”, but Sammy would be hoping for the exact opposite.
A change in formats will also mean change in perspective and we are unlikely to witness those run fests we just did against Australia. That said, every Indian batsman is in form and that includes Pujara, who notched up a triple-century in the recent ‘A’ series against the West Indies.
Dhoni, who started off the interaction with some fault-finding (see box), seemed relaxed when he was posed with an array of non-Tendulkar questions. The last one, though, had to be related to the master. “Mahi, looking at these farewell preparations for Sachin, do you dream of getting such a farewell?” he was asked. Good question, right? But Dhoni just smiled, stood up and left.
Time for some Test cricket!
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