Perfect Opportunity For West Indies To Score Big: Saba Karim

IND vs WI 2nd Test: The West Indies fought their way back into the contest in the 2nd Test at Port of Spain on Friday by first restricting India to 438 runs in the 1st innings, and then closing the day at 86/1.

Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (37 batting) and Kirk McKenzie (14 batting) will be resuming proceedings on Saturday. 

Earlier, former India captain Virat Kohli scored 121 for his first overseas ton in five years, Ravindra Jadeja contributed 61 and R Ashwin hit 56 as India put themselves in a position of strength. 

Speaking about what to expect on Day Three, former India stumper Saba Karim, who is a JioCinema expert, said: “This is a perfect opportunity for the young West Indian side to build a first innings score and at least get into this Test match. They must apply some more pressure on the Indian bowlers on a wicket like this, and you expect this young West Indian batting line up to come good.”  

So, what do the Indian bowlers need to do differently to put the hosts on the backfoot? “This is a challenging surface for the pace bowlers and also the spinners because the wicket is on the slower side. So even if the spinners for instance are able to deceive the batters in flight, they have enough time to go on the backfoot and negate the spin or the turn that is on offer,” explained Karim.  

“For pace bowlers, they need to work out different plans all the time. Short-ball tactics may also become effective or bowling the one-wicket line may also help. We saw what the West Indian pace bowlers did to the Indian side. They angled away from the left-hander. A similar kind of tactic can be employed by the young Indian pace bowling attack. But, I think there’s a lot of work ahead on Day Three for the spin duo for Jadeja and R Ashwin,” he added. 

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Karim expects the wicket to offer some turn as the match enters its business end. “Day Two was a fabulous surface to bat on. On Day Three, I do expect the wicket to offer some kind of turn, not so much of bounce but the turn may be more affective for the spinners India has got. Ashwin and Jadeja should be able to exploit these conditions.”