Getting a clean sweep of the West Indies seems essential for India’s chances of making a third straight final, even early in this World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. Rohit Sharma and company would have wanted to think that the two Test matches in the Caribbean were a little bit of a banker given that they had series against South Africa, England, and Australia planned for this season.
If they are successful in achieving their desired score of 2-0, they will be grateful to Mohammed Siraj for doing what was necessary to maintain their hopes by dismissing the West Indies middle and lower order to secure his second five-wicket haul in Test matches. India had a commanding first-innings lead of 183 as the final five West Indies wickets were only lost for a total of 26 runs.
Ishan Kishan helped himself to an unbeaten 34-ball 52 as India sped to 181/2 in 24 overs, around two rain interruptions, after Rohit (57 in 44 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (38 in 30) had given the visitors a quick start. This gave the hosts a target of 364 in less than four sessions.
The West Indies had a rather promising beginning and finished the penultimate day on 76/2. The series’ captain Kraigg Brathwaite was brought home by Ravichandran Ashwin for the fourth time in a row, this time by top-edging a sweep, before rookie Kirk McKenzie was caught in front by a rapid slider from behind the stumps for a duck. The surface will start to help tweakers more on the last day, making the master off-spinner the biggest menace to the batsmen. India may need to overcome the weather in their quest for a 2-0 series victory in addition to potential resistance from the West Indies batters, with a sizable chance of rain on Monday.
On Day 4, Tagenarine Chanderpaul frequently failed to recognise scoring possibilities at first while Jermaine Blackwood restrained his innate aggression to occupy the crease for an extended period of time in the first innings, but not for an excessive amount of runs. On the last day, as India searches for the final eight wickets and 289 runs are needed for an unlikely victory, they will start the hosts’ challenge.
The amount of runs the hosts scored was not as important a factor as time, especially because rain cut into the playing time, as it took the hosts as much as 115.4 overs for them to score 255 in the first innings. On Sunday morning, the hosts were bowled out in double fast time, which gave Rohit and Jaiswal the opportunity to work as usual for their IPL clubs.
With the first ball of the innings, Jaiswal went for a wild hoick against Kemar Roach, setting the tone for the entire game. On that ball, he didn’t get the intended result, but the objectives were obvious from the start. In the opening over alone, the left-hander stepped out to create space so he could hit the pacer over wide mid-on for a six. After getting too straight on the following ball, Roach was creamed through the onside for a boundary.
The Indian innings got off to a start that would have been more than acceptable in a T20 game since Rohit was also in the mood. After four overs, the scoring rate was in the high tens, and the 50 was reached in only 34 balls.
The West Indian fielders did their part to show hospitality by dropping what would be considered sitters at the international level from Shannon Gabriel and Kirk McKenzie. Rohit was the winner on both occasions as he went on to score a quickfire fifty.
The stop-start play on Day 4 demonstrated where the West Indies stand as a Test team—they are just marginally competitive with top teams at key moments of play. When the going gets tough, they struggle like they did on Day 4 when their lower order capitulated and their bowling and fielding were overrun by the Indian openers.
Field placements don’t really matter when the fielding side is focused on getting wickets rather than freeing up the batsman. Even though the third guy was kept unseated for some reason, West Indies captain Brathwaite promptly dispersed his team. On both sides of the wicket, boundaries—fours and sixes—seem to arrive virtually every other delivery as the West Indies pace bowlers were treated with complete contempt.
The greatest bowler for the hosts in the series has undoubtedly been left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican, but for some reason, Brathwaite was reluctant to use him even though everyone else was getting destroyed. He may have been content to savour as much of the game as he could while the faster bowlers took longer to complete their overs.
Before the first rainstorm of the day brought an early lunch, Rohit eventually camped out. Following the restart, Warrican had Jaiswal right away, and Jaiswal gave a strong heave. In order to maintain the left-right combination, Kishan was inserted at No. 4 in place of Virat Kohli, while Shubman Gill, who hadn’t had a great series, stayed unbeaten on 29.
Siraj is by no means a seasoned Test player, but his wobble-seam delivery has already developed into a rather effective tool. He quickly dispatched the West Indies bottom order on the fourth morning after getting one to creep in between the bat and pad to dismiss Joshua da Silva on Saturday. Siraj demonstrated his skill to dismiss Jason Holder, the other overnight batsman, by moving wide of the crease and convincing one to leave the tall right-hander against the angle, inducing an edge through to wicketkeeper Kishan, after Mukesh had successfully completed the crucial task of getting the impressive Alick Athanaze with a questionable LBW call.
Little resistance was provided by the remaining batters. Roach lost the ball after an expansive drive against a full, wide ball that swung away, while Alzarri Joseph and Gabriel were caught in front by wobble-seam in-duckers. The West Indies tail was once again exposed for its frailty as Siraj recorded figures of 5/60, his best in Test cricket to date. Siraj is the most seasoned seamer in the XI and took the lead because neither Jasprit Bumrah nor Mohammed Shami were in the Caribbean this time. Even if the more seasoned pair is available for selection, he has made sure that his name will always be considered if more than two quicks are required.
