Spinners will play a huge role in West Indies, says Dhoni

Rahane said adjusting to the conditions would be important if their batsmen were to thrive.

Virat Kohli says he got “words of gold” from the legendary Vivian Richards who visited the Indian team hotel on Monday ahead of the first Test. You saw how he played in Sri Lanka, he scored a very quick hundred, but got injured unfortunately. “Even the bowlers have to bowl very disciplined line and lengths here and be patient here”.

Reminded about skipper Virat Kohli’s comment after the South Africa series at home late a year ago that the batting unit needed to shape up, Rahane said, “It’s all about focusing on this series right now”. They lost the series 0-1, courtesy a single 142-run loss in the second Test match at Barbados, but came out emboldened, thanks to the efforts of two men.

Dhoni insisted that India had a fine pool of talent to call on in the Caribbean, where Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are also likely to play a key role. The Tamil Nadu cricketer was the third highest run-getter in the Test series against South Africa, where the spinners ruled the roost. “So our top five batsmen plus the wicketkeeper will have to take responsibility and raise a big score so that we can bowl them out twice”, Kohli said at the pre-match press conference. “It is not easy to take 20 wickets on these slower tracks”, the middle-order batsman added.

“I don’t think we will have to change anything drastically, but we will have to cut out some shots initially”.

When he speaks about patience, Rahane meant that instead of trying to get a century off 150 balls, they might have to wait for 250 balls to score one.

“But initially it is important to give yourself time”. The Indian team analyst will be as hard at work as the players in helping them prepare against a team they know so little about.

With just one day left for the match, the wicket at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium took centre stage today with some fresh grass patches appearing on it.

“We expect to face a lot of spin against the Indians in this series, so it is about playing the waiting game”, said Brathwaite, who blasted four sixes in a row against England in April to seal the West Indies’ World T20 triumph.

But it won’t be a cakewalk for the visitors as the track used for the practice games at St. Kitts was on the slower side but with some bounce, which helped the spinners from either side while the pacers had to be satisfied with the limited movement available.

Rahane praised the bowlers for their persistence during the two warm-up games. Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ishant Sharma are certainties in the Indian XI and that leaves out only four places for the other 10 in the squad to fight it out. “They will have to bowl in partnerships on these slow wickets”, he added. The batting legend was also pivotal in India’s 3-0 win against South Africa at home which saw the team rise to the no. 1 spot in Test rankings.