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London: With eyes firmly set on a semifinal berth, a confident India will seek to keep the momentum going when they take on an unpredictable West Indies in a crucial Group B match of the ICC Champions Trophy at The Oval on Tuesday.
Both the teams have won their opening group matches in contrasting fashion, and know very well that a win on Tuesday will almost guarantee a spot in the last four stage of the tournament, being held for the last time.
While reigning world champions India defeated injury-hit South Africa by 26 runs in Cardiff after posting a commanding 331 for 7, the West Indies eked out a close two-wicket win over Pakistan in a low-scoring game on Friday.
But come Tuesday, the clash will be a battle between many players who have solid 'knowledge' of each other.
Having just played the Indian Premier League, India and the West Indies are studded with key players who are aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Interestingly, rival captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo are Chennai Super Kings teammates while Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle turned out for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
But this will be a clash where national prestige will be at stake and no quarter will be given nor asked for.
In-form West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels has already sounded the warning bells, saying the Caribbeans will look the Indians in the eye and have the arsenal to rattle them in English conditions.
From an overall team perspective and build-up, India look stronger on paper. Their batting looks in awesome form with three back-to-back 300-plus scores in conditions where the ball has done a bit early in the innings.
West Indies have a 2-1 win-loss record against India in the Champions Trophy. Both Caribbean wins, interestingly, came on sub-continental wickets in 1998 (Dhaka) and 2006 (Ahmedabad), respectively. India beat West Indies by seven wickets in Johannesburg in 2009 with medium-pacer Praveen Kumar bagging 3 for 22.
But history will count for nothing as the team that handles the conditions better will come out on top on Tuesday.
West Indies will surely test the Indian batsmen with both speed and spin. Pacers Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Tino Best can be a handful while spinner Sunil Narine will always have a few tricks up his sleeve.
Tuesday's battle will be between teams that have different reputations in world cricket.
India, with a muscular batting line-up, are the world champions and currently No. 1 in the ICC rankings, whereas West Indies are a team on the ascendancy but with an air of unpredictability that always keeps the opposition on the tenterhooks.
Teams from:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Amit Mishra.
West Indies: Dwayne Bravo (Capt.), Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Jason Holder, Tino Best, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy and Devon Smith (wk).
Match facts
Tuesday June 11, 2013
Start time 10.30am local (0930 GMT, 1500 IST)
