India will miss the services of one-day specialist Yuvraj Singh as they launch their campaign in the DLF Cup cricket tri-series against the West Indies in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, eager to prove that the innovative training camps back home have sharpened their skills.
The Indians have of late resorted to unconventional training methods to prepare for upcoming tournaments and the tri-series will give Rahul Dravid and his men an opportunity to test themselves against two strong opponents.
- Malaysia tri-series coverage
The absence of Yuvraj, who is down with fever, could give all-rounder Dinesh Mongia the chance to prove his worth after staging a comeback to the national team.
The team management has already made it clear that it will continue to experiment with some of the batting slots and it could mean that players like Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni may come up and down the order as per the team requirement.
The recent 1-4 series defeat at the hands of the West Indies will also be rankling the Indians, who will be hoping to settle old scores with the Caribbean team at the Kinrara Oval.
The West Indies, since that victory, had been projecting themselves as a vastly improving one-day side. But the tag of unpredictability refused to leave Brian Lara's men when they suffered a dramatic collapse on Tuesday to world champions Australia in the opening match of this day-night tournament.
The buzz would be around the much-anticipated return of Sachin Tendulkar to the international arena. The star batsman was expected to make a comeback from a shoulder injury last month in Sri Lanka but the jinxed trip meant it had to be delayed till this competition.
And the opposition camp cannot afford to take Tendulkar lightly though he has not been a heavy scorer of late.
"We know Sachin can bat well. It all depends on how well we can carry our game plan," West Indies star batsman Shivnarain Chanderpaul said.
Tendulkar looked in fine nick in the two practice games that the teams played towards the fag end of their training camp in Chennai but it remains to be seen how he uses this opportunity to prepare himself for the high profile Champions Trophy next month.
The Mumbai batsman had come to bat in his usual opening position in the brief four overs of play that was possible in Sri Lanka but with a different partner in skipper Rahul Dravid.
Whether it was a one-off experiment or a sign of things to come would only be known when the players walk out in the middle at the Kinrara Oval tomorrow.
The wicket at the Oval played true to the prediction made by curator Lee Burdett. It was a haven for strokemakers but also had something in it for the bowlers, a more or less ideal strip for which Burdett can take some credit.
"We have been out on the park, we know what the pitch is playing like and its nice to have that opportunity," West Indies skipper Brian Lara said.
"Hopefully the fact that they (India) haven't played on this surface yet could be advantageous to us but it's still a cricket game and whoever plays well on the day will win," Lara said.
"Australia has a winning habit. They had six or seven of their top players sitting on the sidelines and they still came away with a victory," Lara said, referring to his team's first match against the World champions.
"We frittered away a good start. We have to make sure it will not happen again," he said.
The hot and humid conditions combined with the dew factor could see sides preferring to bat first on winning the toss, unless swing comes into play prominently.
The pre-tournament hype took a beating somewhat from the empty stands at the stadium for the match between the West Indies and Australia, but the scenario could be different for India's matches given the large number of ethnic Indians in this country, hosting an international tournament of this kind for the first time ever.
Squads (from):
India: R Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Mohd Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Suresh Raina, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, R P Singh, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel.
West Indies: Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Wavell Hinds, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Carlton Baugh, Ian Bradshaw, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore.
