Jamaica, June 20: The number one Test team in the world, India, get set to take on West Indies in the first Test of the three-match series at Sabina Park here in Kingston, Jamaica. India are without some of their leading players like Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for this series but still appear to be the stronger side heading into this Test against the hosts.
Jeff Dujon in his pitch report opined that the Sabina Park wicket has some moisture in it and will play well on the first couple of days.
India captain MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first. India are playing two spinners in this game. Abhinav Mukund and Virat Kohli make their Test debuts for India as both Pragyan Ojha and Munaf Patel miss out. Marlon Samuels and Kemar Roach do not figure in the West Indies playing eleven.
Captain speak:
MS Dhoni (India):
On the decision to bat first: “Looks like a good track, I think it will help the seamers initially, has a bit of moisture early on. But with the composition we’ve got, we’d like to bat first.”
Darren Sammy (West Indies):
On the wicket: “It looks good. There is a bit of moisture in it. We’ll look to exploit it and make inroads in their batting line-up.”
Playing XIs
West Indies: LMP Simmons, AB Barath, RR Sarwan, DM Bravo, S Chanderpaul, BP Nash, CS Baugh (wk), DJG Sammy (c ), R Rampaul, D Bishoo, FH Edwards
India:M Vijay, A Mukund, R Dravid, VVS Laxman, V Kohli, SK Raina, MS Dhoni(c, wk), Harbhajan Singh, I Sharma, A Mishra, Praveen Kumar
