West Indies captain Roston Chase has sounded a warning for his team’s hosts, India, for the upcoming two-Test series, telling them that the visitors are a ‘dangerous’ group because they have nothing to lose.
Indeed, the West Indies are placed sixth in the current World Test Championship (WTC) points table, with no wins from three Tests so far. Crucially, they haven’t beaten India in a Test in 23 years, and the last Windies Test win in India came in 1994-95. For a series win, you’ll have to go further back to 1983-84.
“We are coming in as the underdogs; we have nothing to lose, so I think that makes us quite a dangerous side when you really have nothing to lose,” Chase said, as quoted by PTI.
Chase added that, understanding the challenge, the West
Indies have put in the work with their analysts to study New Zealand’s historic and first-ever 3-0 whitewash of India last year.
“Obviously, we’re not in a good position right now in terms of our Test status and we are kind of low on the (World Test Championship) table, but we have to put that behind us… New Zealand came last year and dominated India, so we are really trying to learn from what they did and try to put some of that stuff in place so that we can play some good cricket and compete and try to win the series,” he said.
“The analyst sent the footage of the New Zealand series and we really zoned-in on the critical points that we really want to focus on. I’ve played in India before and I know that it’s spin-friendly conditions. (It is) more than likely the spinners may have to bowl more of the overs and we’ve been putting in the work,” Chase added.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Windies do that. New Zealand came prepared for rank-turners, while the Men in Maroon’s coach, Darren Sammy, said they’d like to challenge India with their pace variety.
In that they have already been dealt a double blow, with both Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph being ruled out with injuries.
‘It does look green’: Chase on Ahmedabad pitch
India might have a surprise in store to welcome the visitors, with the pitch in Ahmedabad offering a greenish tinge as of Wednesday. Although it might be completely shaved off for the start of the match, Indian skipper Shubman Gill suggested that India would look for ‘balance’ between help for bowlers and batters.
“India is mainly a spin-based country, but I saw the pitch yesterday and it does look a bit green, so we don’t know what it will be yet,” Chase said.
