India is now in the final stage of their 2019 tour of the West Indies. Having won the T20 Series and the ODI series, Team India must be confident of doing a clean sweep in the Test series too. West Indies team, on the other hand, has a mountain to climb. It will be a great series if West Indies manages to scare the No.1 Test side with relentless quality test cricket. Let us see the India tour of West Indies 2019 1st test preview.
The color of the ball has changed. The jerseys are back to whites and after 7 months of wait, the Indian Cricket Team is back to play the classic old format, Test Cricket.
The series is the first assignment for both India and West Indies as far as the World Test Championship is concerned as both teams will be looking to get the 60 points at stake in the 1st match.
The hosts haven’t won a test series against India since 2002 and will be looking to end their jinx. This time around they will be confident having defeated England 2-1 in a test series in January this year.
The Carribean side has a settled core in Bravo, Gabriel, Hope, Chase, and Roach and can unsettle the Indians in phases of the match.
On the other hand, the No. 1 test side will be eyeing a whitewash over the opponents.
The main concern will be a lack of international match time for the ‘Test specialists’. However, Pujara scored a century in the practice game while Rahane got a 50 in the second innings of the same game. Ashwin has been playing County Cricket lately and had also been adjudged as the player of the month.
Team Prediction:
West Indies have a fairly settled line-up in Test Cricket. Their only spot of a dilemma is the slot where one of Keemo Paul and Rakheem Cornwall will play unless any injuries arise to change their plans
West Indies Probable XI:
Kraigg Braithwaite, John Campbell, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Shane Dowrich, Jason Holder, Rakheem Cornwall/Keemo Paul, Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach
India have few slots where they have to think as well. It will be interesting to see whether the team plays 6 batsmen and 1 wicket-keeper or plays 5 bowlers. Rishabh Pant is the likely keeper ahead of Saha. Bumrah and Ishant will be the frontline pacers. But there are doubts over Shami as the latter didn’t bowl in the practice game. One of the important decisions that the team has to take is regarding the spinners. It will be interesting to see which two spinners will make the cut in the XI.
India Probable XI:
KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Hanuma Vihari/Mohammad Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin/Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma
Stats that matter
Virat Kohli is one win away from surpassing Ganguly with the most away wins by an Indian Captain. Currently, both have 11 wins on the list.
With one more win, he will equal MS Dhoni’s record of 27 wins, which are the most by an Indian Captain.
So, that was the preview of the first test of the India tour of West Indies 2019. Let us hope for a great and entertaining test series, as India and West Indies put their first step forward towards winning the ICC World Test Championship.
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