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Barbados: Handed a sound thrashing by Australia in their opening Super Eight match, India will have to quickly sort out their batting woes as they take on the West Indies in a do-or-die contest in the Twenty20 World Cup at the Kensington Oval on Sunday.
Like the Indians, West Indies are also faced with a must-win situation, as another defeat would virtually put them out of contention for a place in the semifinals.
Fortunately for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, the islanders do not have a lethal pace battery like the Australians. Kemar Roach may have troubled Ricky Ponting on bone-hard wicket Down Under, but he is not accurate like Dirk Nannes or Shaun Tait.
So the element of pace and bounce will not impact the Indian batsmen who had surrendered meekly to the Aussies' pace quartet.
Bounce there will be in this lively deck, but if the West Indian quicks -- Roach and Jerome Taylor -- don't execute their skills, it will not frazzle the Indian top order.
India would have certainly learnt a lesson or two from their embarrassing 49-run drubbing on Friday.
Dhoni conceded that India had sought to fight fire with fire and had consequently paid for the imprudence.
The urge to play the pull shot, without getting inside the line of the ball, must have probably been flushed out of their psyche when they take the field.
Also, they would have worked on their bowling inadequacies, which was ruthlessly exposed by Shane Watson and David Warner during their hurricane 106-run partnership.
It is a comfort to play an extra batsman as an exigency against a collapse. But then, India can't compromise on their bowling.
Part-time spinners or batting all-rounders could win them one game in ten. But it is the regular bowlers who can provide the breaks to gain momentum consistently.
This is one aspect that the Indian team management, which is sorely missing Virender Sehwag, would have taken into consideration before penning down the names for the bash against West Indies.
Without another opener in the 15-man squad, India would be forced to play Murali Vijay, who has struggled against the rising ball, bowled in the corridor of uncertainty.
No doubt he is technically sound, but in his aspiration to play shots on the up, he has failed miserably.
On the other hand, Chris Gayle's boys would be determined to do well in front of their home crowd, especially after being mauled by 57 runs by Sri Lanka.
"We will definitely have a discussion about our performance and go back to the drawing board to get ourselves sorted out. As it is a must win game for both the sides, it will be a good battle at the square," said Gayle.
Having watched the Indians made a hash of their chase against a hostile attack, West Indies could pepper their sub-continental rivals with short-pitched bowling, though they don't really have the class and pace of the Australian counterparts.
"We watched the India-Australia game. We will look at that option. At the same time you have bowl according to plan to achieve the desired results. I think India have quality batsmen who can make adjustments, according to the situation," said Gayle.
Considering that Kieron Pollard batted low down the order and could not get going against the Sri Lankan bowlers, West Indies have an option of sending their most devastating batsman up the order.
"He is the kind of guy you can go in and start hitting the ball straightaway. So we are holding him aback a bit. But if needed, we can send him in early," said Gayle.
With Australia and Sri Lanka sitting pretty with two points under their belt, India would have to play their best cricket to get the better of the West Indians.
Dhoni's men have the potential but they need to convert that potential into runs and wickets to keep the tri-colour flying aloft.
Team news
West Indies Even though Jerome Taylor went for 28 in three overs on his comeback, there is no way Windies are going without two genuine quicks against India. Given Andre Fletcher's struggles behind the stumps, they could give the specialist keeper, Denesh Ramdin, a game.
Squad from Chris Gayle (C), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Andre Fletcher (WK), Wavell Hinds, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (VC & WK), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor
India Rohit Sharma, with his lone hand of 79 against Australia, should have assured himself a place. Ravindra Jadeja, on the other hand, went for 38 runs in two overs, missed a catch, and ran himself out by running away from the stumps. Yusuf Pathan or Jadeja, could be left out to bring in a specialist bowler R Vinay Kumar or Piyush Chawla.
Squad from MS Dhoni (c & wk), Piyush Chawla, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Vinay Kumar, Harbhajan Singh , Zaheer Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir (VC), Murali Vijay, Umesh Yadav
Pitch and conditions
This is the final day of the Super Eight stage in Barbados before the tournament heads back to St Lucia. There has been good pace, true bounce, and not much sideways movement in the surface. In other words, it has been a pitch that not many will complain about. Another warm day is predicted.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Sunday May 09, 2010
Start time 09:30 local (13:30 GMT)
