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London: After a cakewalk against minnows in the league matches, India would be in for their first real challenge as they square up against the West Indies in their Super Eight opening match in the Twenty20 World Cup at the Lord's on Friday.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and company have so far shown great resolve by being unperturbed by the off-field controversies surrounding the team and living up to their defending champions' tag by recording facile wins against Bangladesh and Ireland in their Group A league matches.
But the path here onwards will be difficult for them to tread on especially after explosive opener Virender Sehwag, who can turn the tide in his team's favour on his day, was ruled out of the tournament owing to a shoulder injury.
"It's good to be in Super Eight. From now, each and every game would be difficult," Dhoni admitted.
While makeshift opener Rohit Sharma is doing his best to ensure that team does not feel the absence of Sehwag, captain Dhoni is elated at the return of form of his bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan, who recovered just in time from his shoulder injury.
Zaheer, with his 4-19 against Ireland yesterday, has rediscovered his rhythm and that will surely boost India's bowling strength.
Dhoni was visibly relieved after seeing Zaheer getting into the groove so soon at Trent Bridge.
Dhoni used the warm-up matches as well as the group matches to experiment before he zeroes down on the final combination and the strategy for the main part of the tournament.
"We are trying a few things. I think we have to see what combination we are playing with and decide depending on that," Dhoni said.
In the fielding department, the Indian skipper wants his players to pull up their socks for success. "In the field, we didn't perform our best."
Dhoni appears to be justified in being a bit demanding as the West Indies seems to swear by the Twenty20 format and have just tasted blood by knocking out Australia.
West Indian captain Chris Gayle wants to embrace T20 completely, even at the cost of Tests or One-dayers, and it's a philosophy which is slowing permeating down to every single individual of the side.
Opener Gayle himself is West Indies' biggest strength, a typhoon who on his day can make attacks shudder.
Gayle is West Indies lynchpin but there are number of formidable strikers, backed by a limpet at the crease in Shivnaraine Chanderpaul.
Xaiver Marshall, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Andre Fletcher, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin come in succession and clearly it's a batting which can put the fear of god in any bowling line-up.
The bowling too has impressive spearheads in Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor who are fast yet different, one whose yorkers are well-guided missiles and the other whose lifters with swing, often late, can wreck carnage on opposition.
This is a line-up which would test Dhoni's theories to the utmost. The Indian skipper likes to hold wickets in hand for a late assault but Edwards and Taylor are just the kind of bowlers who can test such a resolve.
Dhoni also likes to have match-winning bowlers and all four of his protagonists -- Zaheer and Ishant; Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha -- fit the ball but in a shorter format of the game against destructive bats like Gayle, anything can happen.
The only weakness of Gayle's team is its inconsistency and the flips and flops of the Caribbean sides in recent years is almost notorious
Weakness/Strength
India: West Indies clearly relished the pace of Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee, but against Sri Lankan quality spin bowling they struggled. Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha are not quite your Murali and Mendis, but they are good enough to test West Indies. The only worry so far has been their bowling at the death. In their two warm-up games, they gave away 31 and 39 in their last two overs, and Ireland managed 39 off the last three in the final league game.
West Indies: Lendl Simmons, Gayle's replacement for the match against Sri Lanka, has given West Indies plenty to think about. His bowling figures of 3-0-19-4 first kept Sri Lanka to under 200, and then his 19-ball 29 got West Indies to some sort of a start in their chase. Gayle comes back with immense possibility at the top, inspirational leadership, and canny offbreaks. How long he stays at the crease could spell West Indies' fate.
Team news
India: India don't really have major reasons to fiddle around with their winning combination. Except for Irfan Pathan, who provides them with an interesting dilemma. Against Bangladesh, he came out in the last over and hit a six and a four right away, which proved to be the difference between a difficult and an improbable chase. But his bowling has been the weak link in the Indian attack: against Bangladesh his two overs went for 20, and against Ireland his 15-run over in the end took the total past 100. Specialist bowlers in Praveen Kumar or RP Singh, or bits-and-pieces allrounder in Irfan Pathan?
West Indies: Whose place does Gayle take? Simmons will be difficult to push out, which makes Xavier Marshall and Kieron Pollard the prime suspects.
Stats and Trivia
Match facts
Friday June 12, 2009 (day/night)
Start time 17.30 local, 16.30GMT
