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‘Inexperienced’ West Indies’ loss against India shows their lack of hunger to succeed in Tests

West Indies were thrashed in the first Test at Antigua by a superior Indian side.

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Marlon Samuels is among the more experienced players in the West Indies side © PTI
Marlon Samuels is among the more experienced players in the West Indies side © PTI

West Indies were humbled by India by an innings and 92 runs in the first Test and the hosts thoroughly deserved the thrashing. They went into the game with absolutely no plan or strategy. They do have a young, inexperienced side, but what was disappointing is that they failed to put on any fight and went down rather meekly. The only high point for them was the fact that they got the wicket of Murali Vijay early on the first day. From there things went from bad to worse. Their body language on the field was not too great, their bowling ordinary and they had a casual approach to their fielding. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs West Indies 2016, 1st Test at Antigua

West Indies toured Australia and Sri Lanka ahead of this Test series and were beaten on both the occasions. Did they not learn anything from those series? The retirement of Jerome Taylor is certainly a big blow. In Taylor’s absence, the bowling department was led by Shannon Gabriel, who bowled reasonably well. He however did not find anyone to bowl with the same intensity at the other end.

When India started piling on the runs, the West Indies were happy to sit back and let the Indians make a mistake rather than forcing the situation. They could have tried to cut the easy runs, thereby creating pressure on the batsmen. They were also sloppy in the field at times, for example Shane Dowrich dropped a regulation catch of Ravichandran Ashwin when he was in his 40s. He went on to make 113. Full Cricket Updates: India vs West Indies, 1st Test, Day 4

Thankfully for them, the Indians played a few rash shots to get themselves out, else West Indies on their merit, would not have picked up eight wickets. Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels are the two senior statesman, but they failed to deliver. Samuels made a face-saving fifty in the second innings, but that is never going to be enough when you need to get over 300 runs on the board to avoid an innings defeat. With these two struggling to get runs, the inexperience in the batting order was exposed.

Some contributions from tailenders made us realise that runs can be scored against the Indian bowlers if the batsmen just applied themselves. Carlos Brathwaite and Devendra Bishoo were involved in a 95-run partnership for the ninth wicket in the second innings. Even Shane Dowrich scored an unbeaten fifty in the first innings at No. 7. Also not to forget Kraigg Brathwaite’s fighting 74 in the first innings. These are some of the positives West Indies can take from this game. IND vs WI Live Streaming: Watch live telecast on Ozee.com

Looking at the squad ahead of the first Test, it became clear that it is not going to be easy for West Indies to topple India. With an inexperienced side, led by a young captain, one thought that they will be hungry to do well and prove to the world that they are no pushovers. For now, they can be happy that they did not lose by a bigger margin!

With the second Test beginning in five days, West Indies need to regroup and find a way to put up a better fight. If they are going to play with the similar approach as they did at Antigua, they rather not show up at all at Jamaica.

(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at Cricketcountry.com. He is a sport enthusiast and a keen observer of cricket, the contests, and its personalities. When not tracking cricket, he follows the world’s soccer leagues and is somewhat partial towards Liverpool. His Twitter handle is @pramz)

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