India Look To Continue Good Work

So far, so good.  The Indian team, even without at least six of its regulars has adapted well to the West Indies and has won the only Twenty20 and the first ODI, fairly comfortably.  They will now look to continue the good work, and wrap up the ODI series as soon as possible.

Suresh Raina has looked much more confident in his second stint as Captain of India.  The last time he was thrust into that role, he looked disctinctly nervy and lost not only to Sri Lanka but also to hosts Zimbabwe and didn't even make the finals of the Tri-series.  Here, Raina has looked pretty composed and relaxed, and it is showing in both his, and the team's performance.

It is helping that the initial games are being played in Trinidad, where the slow nature of the pitch, and the lack of genuine pace from the Windies, has not tested the alleged Indian weakness against hostile, short pitched and quick bowling. 

One wonders why players such as Jerome Taylor or Fidel Edwards, who though no patch on the late great Malcolm Marshall, except in dimunitive stature, but at least in the same ball park as far as raw pace is concerned, are not in the West Indies side.  Instead we see a West Indies team with two specialist leg-spinners.  Even Australia with Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill never played them both in the side.

Anyway, India will soon be leaving the friendly environs of Trinidad and proceeding to the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, and hopefully the pitch there will be a bit more helpful to pace bowling...though looking at the bowling units of the sides, that may not help West Indies all that much.