Hours before the first one-day international had begun in Kochi, there was huge uncertainty surrounding the match as the West Indies cricketers had threatened to boycott the game over pay issues with their cricket board and the West Indies’ Players Association led by Wavell Hinds. Not many would have given the visitors much of a chance considering how the off-field activities had bothered the visiting team starting from the last-minute withdrawal of ace spinner Sunil Narine.
It was not a start any team would have liked but the way the team, egged on by its chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd and former batting great Viv Richards, galvanised to beat India in their own backyard speaks volumes about their determination and preparation. Nothing can be bigger than the resolve of the players as they decided to get on with the game, putting their personal interest on the back seat, even it is temporary.
The West Indies’ demolition of India also highlighted how their players had gained from the experience of playing in the Indian Premier League. Often we tend to discuss how these T20 leagues help India’s domestic cricketers who don’t get a chance otherwise, ignoring the fact that even foreign cricketers make most of the opportunity of playing in the Indian sub-continent and excel. The Kochi ODI was a classic reminder that IPL is becoming a double-edged sword for India and the ‘home advantage’ – the often talked about factor in international cricket- is shrinking.
Eight out of the West Indies’ playing XI on Wednesday played in an IPL team as early as 2014, with the exceptions being Jerome Taylor, Suleiman Benn and Denesh Ramdin. The two openers, Dwayne Smith and captain Dwayne Bravo both play for one of the IPL’s most consistent sides – the Chennai Super Kings. Smith and Bravo opened the innings at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Wednesday and hit the ground running as thee Indian bowlers struggled throughout. Even Marlon Samuels, who made a return to cricket after seven months, found no discomfort in adapting to the conditions. The experience of playing for the now-defunct Pune Warriors held him in good stead as he and Ramdin did what they were expected to do in such conditions – rotate the strike to start with and go all guns blazing towards the end.
The success of West Indies players in the IPL – Dwayne Smith (36 IPL matches, 1141 runs with an average of 34.57), Kieron Pollard – 77 matches (1332 runs, 53 wickets) and Dwayne Bravo – 74 matches (968 runs, 79 matches) clearly suggests that the players have heavily gained from the experience of playing in India in various leagues and that effect is rubbing off on the West Indies team. It must also be noted that we are not talking about the IPL heavyweights like Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine as they are not in the side for the one-dayers.
While the players from the Caribbean thrived in Kochi, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the likes of Suresh Raina and Mohit Sharma. A run-machine and a legend when it comes to T20 cricket, and in the form of his life going into the Kochi ODI, Raina’s failure simply put India’s chase in disarray as they succumbed to a 124-run loss.
With four games remaining in the series and nine one-day internationals in total before the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, India have been given a jolt. The next stop for MS Dhoni’s team is New Delhi at the Kotla and the onus will be on locals like Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan to exploit the home advantage, if at all it has remained.
