As Harbhajan and Kumble go for the kill…

Thus when they take the field for the second of the Exide Cup Test matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday, victory will be far from the West Indies’ scheme of things. Escaping defeat will be their sole concern. And on a virgin MAC pitch against the world’s finest spin twins, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, even that thought could be a daunting one. The turn of events must be quite to the liking of the home side. Of course, they have walloped better endowed sides in their backyard (like Steve Waugh’s Australians). But the chance to hand out a 3-0 blackwash to the West Indies is something else altogether and should be grabbed with both hands. If nothing else, it would ensure that Sourav Ganguly and his band of brothers are remembered forever in Indian cricketing folklore as the decimators of the Caribbean calypsos.

Indeed the only thing Ganguly and his team need to worry about at this point of time is not complacence, but compassion. And at every such stage they should recall the severe drubbing teams of the past have received at the hands of the terrible West Indies pace battery. Whipping these Calypsos into total submission would be just the first phase towards ensuring a higher ranking in ICC’s Test standing. After all, despite all their defeats, the West Indies are still a notch above India in the Test ranking. And that needs to be rectified immediately.

It could be too, for India’s batsmen are eminently capable of putting enough runs on the board to allow the combined destructive ability of Kumble and Harbhajan to do the rest. The pulverising blade of Virendra Sehwag which already holds a greater aura than the fabled willow of Sachin Tendulkar will be feared most by the West Indies. Sending him to open the batting in both forms of the game was a master stroke.

Sehwag, who like the Chennai weather, can only be hot or hotter, relaxes in between smashing the bowling to all parts of the ground by blasting the good deliveries out of sight! He is a rare one, this Sehwag.

The perfect complement to him, the run-machine Rahul Dravid, looks hungrier than ever before. Four centuries in a row is a tribute to his remarkable ability to stay focused.

We always knew he had the best technique in the business. The relentless, hard-nosed grinding of the attack of late is his way of showing that he takes no prisoners. The champion right-hand batsman is a sort of force-multiplier in this Indian team, for even as he keeps one end going during the accumulation, the other stroke players sink their teeth into the tamed attack.

Dravid and Sehwag, though, have dominated the batting to such an extent of late that the others have hardly got into the act. Tendulkar, for one, must be simply bored while waiting to get into the thick of things.

Should the newly-laid track here hold firm, then the free-flowing strokeplay of Sehwag and Tendulkar will marvelously light up the giant screen at the venue.

If the pitch holds promise the West Indies could unleash Jermane Lawson, the loose-limbed Jamaican who is genuinely quick. Otherwise, containment through their three fast-medium bowlers, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins and Cameron Cuffy, could be the name of their game. The left-handed batsman, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, who at Mumbai showed that he had it in him to take on the Indian spinners, would once again be the main batting hope.

The vastly experienced Hooper and young Ramnaresh Sarwan are the others on whom the West Indies bank on to put some worthwhile runs into the kitty. On their success hinges West Indies’ hopes of staving off yet another defeat.