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Caribbean no longer a tour to look forward to
India were virtually given a free pass to declare and rout WI within three days as Ashwin and Jadeja shared 17 wickets in an innings and 141-run win.
In the history of mismatches, this possibly ranks somewhere near the top of the more embarrassing ones. West Indies, long fallen from grace, were rolled over within three days, their batting surviving for only 115 overs, their bowlers made to toil in the harsh Dominica sun for 152.2 overs till Rohit Sharma decided enough was enough.
A first-innings lead of 271 was never to be threatened. But the speed at which West Indies kept losing wickets is bound to raise the question if they are worthy contenders in Test cricket, and a justified enough reason to sacrifice our sleep. Appalling results in the T20 World Cup, failing to qualify for the ODI World Cup for the first time and now this, Calypso cricket may well and truly be on its last legs.
India didn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to pocket this Test. Once given the ball, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja — introduced in tandem four overs into the second innings — were on autopilot. They shared 17 of the 20 wickets with Ashwin claiming match figures of 12 for 131, his best in overseas Tests.
“The results speak for themselves,” said Sharma. “Both these guys have been doing it for a while for us now. They know exactly what is expected out of them. There's not much to tell them what we need to do. It's just about going to them and giving them that freedom to go and express, because that is when they're doing their best for the side as well.”
There was no doubt West Indies shot themselves in the foot, preparing a sluggish pitch that offered sharper turn as each day passed when they had in their side pacers Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph and Jason Holder who needed a bit of zip off the track. There was no plan, no backup plan, not even a semblance of structured response throughout the time India batted. So dire was the situation that West Indies used nine bowlers during India’s innings. Only opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul — who Courtney Walsh said on TV knows only to bat like his father Shivnarine — and wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva didn’t roll over their arms. And there was no assurance they wouldn’t have had to if India had got to 500 or more.
Their Calypso charm too couldn’t hide the obvious — that West Indies can’t bat out even two sessions on a third day pitch at home. They were caught in a tangle, tied down by the spinners’ loops till they capitulated. “What disappointed me was I didn't get any runs,” said Windies captain Kraigg Brathwaite who scored 20 and 7 as opener. “It is my job to lead from the front. First innings, we lost too many wickets, and as a senior guy I didn't lead the way.”
Leading the way against Ashwin and Jadeja on a slow subcontinent-like pitch is some wish. Especially when they consistently hit that length to which some batters think the right response is to play forward and others to hang back and both don’t know which one would work.
Brathwaite described that feeling. “It is tough, they have good fields set. You need to have the right balance between defending and trying to score. We didn't execute the shots we wanted to, and we need to learn to use the bat more.”
No one will admit this out of courtesy, but India probably knew beforehand they would canter to victory against West Indies. Which is why they used this tour as a soft launch for Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ishan Kishan. Jaiswal responded with a mature hundred. Kishan too wasn’t bad behind the stumps.
“He’s got the talent,” Sharma said of Jaiswal. “We knew about it. He’s shown us in the past couple of years that he’s ready for this big stage. He came and batted sensibly, showed a lot of patience, and the temperament was tested as well. At no stage did it look like he was panicking or going away from his plans, which was good to see.”
So consuming was Jaiswal’s hundred — it lasted 387 balls, spanning nearly five sessions — that Kishan – he has the fastest ODI double hundred — almost missed out on getting a bat. With India in control of the narrative though, Sharma gave Kishan enough time to score his first Test run, glancing Joseph off his hip for a single off the 20th ball he faced. “I was just letting them know that we probably have an over or so and then we're declaring,” he said. “I just wanted Ishan to get off the mark, because he had probably played close to 15-20 balls without getting off the mark, so I wanted to tell him, get your first runs in Test cricket and then we have to declare.”
No side in recent history of the game has had it this easy, unless against rank newcomers. The West Indies situation is dire, going through an unprecedented churn that is yet to throw up anything inspiring. What makes it more perplexing is that not long ago the same West Indies beat England at home and snatched a one-wicket win against Pakistan in Kingston.
The decline has been rapid though, and from the outside looks terminal. This is not West Indies, but a fast-receding shade of its glorious past.
