West Indies bowl in overcast conditions

The rain stayed away on Saturday morning, and West Indies chose to field in the tour opener, the only Twenty20 international in Trinidad. They didn't make any changes to the side that beat Pakistan in the Twenty20 in the first half of their home season.

A weakened Indian side, led by Suresh Raina, had a few choices to make. Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan were chosen to open, S Badrinath and Rohit Sharma filled the middle-order vacancies, and R Ashwin was the second spinner beside Harbhajan Singh.

West Indies 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Andre Fletcher (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Danza Hyatt, 6 Darren Sammy (capt), 7 Christopher Barnwell, 8 Andre Russell, 9 Ashley Nurse, 10 Devendra Bishoo, 11 Ravi Rampaul.

India 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Virat Kohli, 5 S Badrinath, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Munaf Patel, 11 R Ashwin.

Gayle shadow still looms large over series

	There's no running away from Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle's shadow hung over the press conference. It was Suresh Raina who nailed Gayle's impact in a delightful moment of humour-infused candour. The question was a direct one: Are you relieved or are you disappointed that Gayle isn't playing? "To be honest I am a bit relieved at the moment," Raina said, as the press room filled with laughter.

The mood, though, turned sombre when the Gayle issue was put forward to the West Indies captain and the coach. Uncomfortable silence was punctuated by a note of defiance. It's an issue that has dogged West Indies for a while now and seems to be heading into a cul-de-sac. And so necks craned forward when the coach Ottis Gibson, who is alleged to have had problems with Gayle, was asked for his opinion. Gibson paused before he tried to be diplomatic. "There is a lot being said. I have left the board to deal with it and have tried to focus on cricket. I have been doing that since the Gayle issue started." The questioner persisted. Do you think both sides have been stubborn? "I don't know." Silence.

It was Darren Sammy's turn next and he chose to take a detour around the question. "It's an opportunity for all the other guys to perform." Diplomacy then gave way to pride. "We won a Twenty20 and a Test match against Pakistan. We have not done it since 2009 and didn't win for 17 Tests. We have managed to draw the series at home against a higher-ranked team. The guys represented West Indies proudly and played their best. We are looking again to play a team and do well." No mention of Gayle in there. Conspiracy theorists will spin it the way they want and Sammy fans will say there's little else he, as a captain, could have said.

Later, as the conference ended and Gibson was on his way out, he was again asked by couple of journalists about the Gayle issue. Do you think the board will arrive at a compromise and Gayle be picked for the third ODI? "They probably will." How are you going to react to that situation when Gayle comes back into the team? Pat came the reply: "I don't have a choice."

The rest of the conference was mundane. Raina and Duncan Fletcher talked about how this was a good opportunity for the youngsters in the team, Gibson and Sammy said they were looking forward to testing their skills against India. Raina said all the right things. "As long as you are playing for your country you get goosebumps. We have a responsibility to do well as the world champions. We will play our natural game and prepare for every match in a good way." Sammy, too, was upbeat. "Playing the No.1 team in the world should be motivating to any player. To do best against the best".

Even as the press meet was on, it rained outside. The covers were on and the Indian team practiced largely indoors. More rain is forecast for tomorrow.

There was one further tricky question that awaited Sammy. It was a direct question about his place in the Test side and how he was handling the growing feeling that he wasn't fit to be in the playing XI. Sammy leaned forward and looked at the questioner. "I go out and do what I have to do. Check the stats and stuff; I have done quite well as a Test cricketer. Whenever I step on to the field, I have West Indian cricket at heart. Everyone is entitled to their opinions but I have the support of my team. I believe in my own ability and I just try to do my best. I try my best. When I step on the field I try to play cricket for all the fans who want to us to get back on top."

Tour begins with trouble in paradise

	Future now?

Match facts

Saturday, June 4, Port of Spain
Start time 1000 (1400 GMT)

Big Picture

It's déjà vu all over again. A little less than a year ago, India began their World Twenty20 campaign in the West Indies just five days after the IPL. Visibly underprepared and disrespectful of international cricket, India were doomed to not go far. Not much has changed on the Indian side of affairs in 2011. Barely six days will have passed since the end of yet another IPL when India kick off their full tour of the West Indies, again with a T20 international. And just like the last time, the hosts will be forced to play at an un-T20 hour of 10 am, sadly to make sure the television viewer in India gets his 7.30 pm start. The people of Trinidad - who might want to catch up on some T20 fun on a Saturday afternoon or evening - be damned.

It serves the broadcasters right then, that India will go through this tour without many of the stars that the Indian TV viewer is believed to never get enough of. West Indies, though, should feel slighted. Virender Sehwag knew he needed a shoulder surgery even before the IPL began. He had a choice to make: he chose the IPL over the West Indies tour. Sachin Tendulkar knew he needed time off cricket: he chose to miss the West Indies Tests but not the IPL.

How the world has changed: there was once a time when players might have wanted to miss a West Indies tour out of fear of their fast bowlers. Now West Indies will feel the duo wouldn't have made similar choices if Tests in England were pitted against the IPL. West Indies will be fuming. West Indies will be inspired. West Indies will want to teach India a lesson. How off the mark can we be? The WICB - rightly or wrongly, who's to say - is not even picking the best-possible side. Chris Gayle remains more active on Twitter than the cricket field. Jerome Taylor, who just played the IPL, is not considered for selection on fitness grounds. There is trouble in paradise, and we can only sit and watch. At 7.30pm, India Standard Time.

Form guide (most recent first)

West Indies WLLLW
India WWWLL

The spotlight

First day, first show for Duncan Fletcher comes with a young inexperienced team. India won't look too different once people start retiring after the Australia tour later this year. Fletcher knew he would have to oversee this transition at some time in his tenure. Starting Saturday the new coach gets a sneak-peak into what future holds for him even as India will be interested in seeing what the new coach holds for them.

The two captains are a fascinating study. Under Suresh Raina's previous watch, India finished third in a tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. He was leading a young team then; this one is not too dissimilar, which means the challenge is just as big.

Darren Sammy, on the other hand, will perhaps never play an international without having to justify his presence. Sometimes he passes in flying colours, as he did in the Test that they won against Pakistan, sometimes he doesn't; at all times he tries gamely, making you wonder what would be if some of the more talented West Indies players played with the same passion and persistence.

Team news

West Indies' squad is almost identical to the one that beat Pakistan in the T20 on April 21. The only change is that Kemar Roach has been rested. He didn't play that game anyway. If they keep the winning combination, left-arm medium-pacer Krishmar Santokie will have to wait for his international debut.

West Indies (probable) 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Andre Fletcher (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Danza Hyatt, 6 Darren Sammy (capt), 7 Christopher Barnwell, 8 Andre Russell, 9 Ashley Nurse, 10 Devendra Bishoo, 11 Ravi Rampaul

India's squad is so different from their usual ones, they have no previous to start from. The choices begin at the top, with Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel favourites as openers. The middle order should be a bit easier to pick, but it will be interesting to see if they go with two spinners and, if they choose to do so, who that second spinner will be. There could be an aversion to playing two offspinners, which is believed to be one of the reasons why R Ashwin lost out to Piyush Chawla in the World Cup squad. Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar will be certainties in the pace attack.

India (probable) 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Virat Kohli, 5 & 6 two out of S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tiwary, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Munaf Patel, 11 R Ashwin/R Vinay Kumar/Amit Mishra/Ishant Sharma

Pitch and conditions

There was heavy rain in Trinidad on the eve of the match, drenching the outfield and bringing the covers on. Scattered thunderstorms have been forecast for the weekend and the following week. If somehow the moisture induces pace and bounce into the pitches, that will be a blessing in disguise.

Stats and trivia

• This is the 200th T20 international. The first was played in February 2005. It took ODIs 12 years to reach No. 200. Incidentally, India and West Indies played the 200th ODI too.
• When India beat West Indies in the 200th ODI, it was a major shock. If they do so in the 200th T20I, it won't be an upset but a minor milestone nonetheless, for India have never beaten West Indies in a T20I, losing at Lord's and Kensington Oval in their two previous clashes.
  Quotes
  "We have to continue to put in the hard work. We are a confident group of young men, and we will go into the series with the belief that we can win."
  Darren Sammy shows how mundane press conferences can sometimes be
  "The West Indies team has been playing good cricket for the past few months, and we are not going to take them lightly."
  Suresh Raina outdoes Sammy's "right areas"

Future at stake in battle of the benches

	This Indian squad is perfect to test the bench strength

"Life is jokey but it's bloody serious. You got to plan. West Indies didn't do it." Ralph, an old caretaker of an inn, drawls as he lights up a cigarette. It's 11 pm and the small neighbourhood in Port of Spain is quiet. The glow from his cigarette lights up his grizzly beard. "We were too arrogant when we were winning and didn't plan for the future. Talent is all dried up now and we are watching the ego fights between the board and the players. It's all downhill. It's good to see India planning for the future by bringing in the younger players."

It's a puzzling series in many ways. The weaker team is ignoring its stars and testing its bench strength. The stronger team is being forced to test its bench strength while its stars choose to rest, some in fatigue, some following injury. The agenda is still pretty simple and straightforward: It's India's series to lose. They are the new world champions and will have to win this ODI series. Never mind that they are missing a couple of big players - a champion team can't have any excuses.

West Indies ran out of excuses for their decline a long time ago and are now scraping the bottom of the barrel of hope. It's a grim scenario. The evidence screamed out when the flight from London descended on Barbados. It was a breathtaking visual - a sparkling sea framing the houses like a jewel - but the question that immediately came to mind was, how on earth did such a tiny island produce a battery of world-class players? Now that same smallness offered another scary thought. How on earth will they find world-class players from such a small area? Trinidad is a much bigger place but big, of course, is relative.

Sometimes a win can just prove to be a setback. Is West Indies' recent Test win over Pakistan a boon or a bane? Will it make the hardliners in the WICB turn more adamant in their vision for a future that doesn't involve the bigger stars like Chris Gayle? Or does that win offer concrete proof of their new vision? This series against India can help decide it.

It was a series against India in 1976 that turned the corner for West Indies in many ways. That bloodbath in Sabina Park when Clive Lloyd, hurt after India chased down 403 in the previous Test, unleashed his fast men against the hapless visitors is a landmark event in West Indian cricket history. That victory made Lloyd, and by extension West Indies, realise that pace was the way to go and his gang of fast men went on to unleash such joyous violence - that still stirs the heart of cricket fans - around the world. Fire was raging in Babylon and Lloyd wasn't fiddling. Nostalgia is fun but not when the present is bleak.

If West Indies are to do well in this series, they can't reproduce tracks that were on offer in the series against Pakistan. If India has a weakness, it's against pace and bounce and West Indies, despite having a legspinner as their strike bowler, need to exploit it - like they did so successfully in the World Twenty20 held in the Caribbean region. Will they go for it?

For India, the absence of the seniors is the best thing that could have happened. This squad is perfect to test the bench strength. It's also the perfect setting for the new India coach, Duncan Fletcher, to ease himself in. He has been ostensibly roped in to help India prepare for a future sans the big names. Now he doesn't have to wait for the end of India's tour of Australia early next year to prepare for that eventuality. This series gives him a taste of things to come.

In the Tests, India are going with a new set of openers and in the ODIs, they will also be infusing fresh blood into the middle order. If West Indies are able to produce tracks that aid bounce, this Indian team can be tested by the likes of Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Andre Russell. It still won't be easy, but at least it will give them a chance.

If the tracks are flat, this could well turn out to be like the 1971 series between the two teams, when a debutant named Sunil Gavaskar gorged on a second-string attack to pile up the runs and launch himself into a calypso. This Indian team might not have anyone in the calibre of a Gavaskar but it's a team filled with ambitious young men, desperately seeking success and fighting for the few available spots when the bigger stars return for sterner tests. It's almost a fight for survival for many. Life is jokey but it's bloody serious.