2nd Test: Ishant Sharma urges India to be ruthless against Windies

The 24-year-old aggressive batsman, whose poor run of form started during last year’s tour of Australia, was dismissed for nought in both innings of his team’s innings and 92-run defeat in the opening Test against India at North Sound, Antigua.

Is Joseph ready for Test cricket?To be fair, I have never played against Alzarri, never seen him play cricket live.

“I’m batting at four, so I have to dominate”.

The potential of the current side: I think the team needs some time to get mature. “It’s always about contributing to the team’s success”, Pujara said. I have spoken with Anil Kumble too, and he told me a few things about my batting. It’s a sound plan against a better team, but the problem with defensive cricket is that you have to play it excellently for long periods of time. I did the hard work in the first session when the ball was moving … but there are things to learn from that particular game.

I have spoken to him, he told me about a few things which obviously I can not disclose here. “And he is very happy with the way I have been batting”, he said. On the eve of the second Test at Sabina Park, Jamaica, the all-rounder shared his views on the pitch, the possible debut for teenage sensation Alzarri Joseph and more.

“For us it’s just about getting accustomed to worldwide cricket, familiarizing ourselves with the conditions and putting out some good performances”. “I don’t think I need to really worry much about the kind of performances I have put on or what everyone is saying. We have a positive environment and all the guys are charged up for this test match”.

Cheteshwar Pujara did enough in the first Test to be given another chance to come good. But one Test match at a time and we will be focussing on winning this Test.

“We feel highly motivated after that win”, Mishra said. The first aim is to win the series and then we’ll look to win all the Tests. “Going ahead we want to be the No. 1 Test team in the world too”. The pitch looked neon green two mornings before the Test. India won their last two close Tests here thanks to Rahul Dravid masterclasses; if West Indies bowlers turn up, India might need something similar from their batsmen.

Crucial for India was the performance of their lower order with Ravi Ashwin hitting his third Test hundred and leg-spinner Amit Mishra getting a bold half-century. “You look for reasons why we do things wrong, and the response is we didn’t bowl well and didn’t bat well, so we gotta do the both of them well and make sure we level the series”, he underlined.

For the last 10-15 years we had a very strong team.