NEW DELHI, India, CMC/IANS – West Indies arrived yesterday for their series of three Tests and five One-day Internationals against India.
Led by Darren Sammy, West Indies are on a high after their rare series win on foreign soil, albeit against Bangladesh.
They beat the Bangladeshis 2-1 in the ODI series and 1-0 in the two-Test series.
“We set out to achieve this goal and we believe as we team we did something special for West Indies cricket,” said Sammy.
“We left home hoping to come out here and play well. I’d like to compliment the coaching staff and the players for the way they played, after playing and working hard, it’s good. We all knew that Bangladesh would put up a fight.”
Sammy added: “The positives from that tour have to be the way the batsmen played and went about their business. Not just only putting the runs
on the board, but also occupying the crease and spending time in the crease.
“We took some very good catches and overall we applied pressure when we had to and we handled the pressure very well when it was applied on us. This is the first time in history that we did not concede any extras. This shows the discipline in bowling.”
The Indian team, after a disastrous tour to England, whitewashed Alastair Cook’s side on return in a five-match ODI series and are looking forward to the West Indies series to try to further redeem themselves, as well as prepare for the tough tour of Australia that follows.
“This will be a different kind of challenge to what we faced in Bangladesh,” he said. “India are a good team with some outstanding players as the record shows. But we are a confident team and that confidence comes from the success we have been getting and from the way we have been playing.
“We played very well against them at home earlier in the year and then we won in Bangladesh. We will take the positives and apply them in the series and face the challenge with confidence and the belief that we can win.”
Opening batsman Adrian Barath is the only addition to the West Indies squad that beat Bangladesh, replacing Lendl Simmons.
Barath has been passed fit after recovering from a hamstring injury.
West Indies will miss explosive opener Chris Gayle, who has not played international cricket after World Cup because of his long-running tiff with the West Indies Cricket Board.
The first Test will begin on Sunday at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here, with the second Test from November 14 to 18 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and the third Test from November 22 to 26 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The ODI series will be held at Cuttack (November 29), Visakhapatnam (December 2), Ahmedabad (December 5), Indore (December 8) and Chennai (December 11).
