Rotating strike key to handling spinners: Gibson

Trinidad: Wary of India's lethal spin attack, West Indies coach Ottis Gibson has advised his batsmen to rotate the strike quickly while negotiating the slow ball bowlers of the World champion side in the upcoming tour.

Harbhajan Singh will lead India's spin attack with Amit Sharma and Ravivhandran Ashwin giving him company in India's tour of the West Indies. © AFP

The Caribbean batsmen had struggled against the Pakistani spin trio of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammed Hafeez and Abdur Rehman in the Test and ODI series, and Gibson wants his players to learn from the mistakes and perform better against India.
West Indies lost the ODI series against Pakistan 2-3 and drew the Test series 1-1.
India, the top-ranked Test team, will begin its Caribbean tour on June 4 with a one-off Twenty20 clash, which will be followed by a five-match ODI series and three Tests.
While Harbhajan Singh is certain to figure in both the Test and ODI series, leg-spinner Amit Mishra and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have so far been included for the One-dayers.

Indian spinners have shown good form in the IPL but Gibson believes his side can compete well against them.
"It is not a lot of time but we got a lot of players that have played the spin and made runs against spin before. People just have to be clear what their game plan is against spin and back themselves and their ability," Gibson said.
The coach, though, advised his players to not let the spinners bowl too many dot balls.
"They are setting us up, working us out and getting us out quite easy so we need to be able to rotate the strike against the spinners a lot more and make sure that the bowlers aren't bowling too many balls in succession to us.
"Sometimes, we look very tentative and we sort of lock ourselves in a hole and then our only response is to try to hit ourselves out of the hole. We got to find the balance between attack and defence," Gibson was quoted as saying by Trinidad Express.
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy also feels that their fate in the contest against India would depend a lot on how they handle the spinners.
"We as a batting group have to play spin better. Not only in the Test series but in the One-Day series as well, they gave our batsmen trouble.
"I know the guys are working hard with the batting coach (Desmond Haynes) in the nets and I can foresee a better performance against India," Sammy said.
"The batting definitely has to come to the party where we could bat long and put good totals on the board so the bowlers could have something to work with. It's a big series and we all looking forward to it," he added.

Raman changed my approach towards game: Manoj

New Delhi: Replacing Yuvraj Singh in the one-day squad is not an easy job but Manoj Tiwary doesn't want any additional pressure on himself ahead of the West Indies tour.

"I should be honest enough to admit that when I was bowled by a Brett Lee yorker in Brisbane, I wasn't matured enough. Now I have played three more seasons of first-class cricket. I have done well in IPL against international bowlers. Definitely the confidence level and the self belief has improved." © Getty Images

And if the Bengal captain has learnt the art of releasing pressure, credit goes to current Bengal coach WV Raman.
"I will be forever being indebted to Raman sir for his contribution in my comeback to the national team. He has been like my Man Friday helping me get rid of the cobwebs I had in my mind," Manoj said on Friday.
Asked about Raman's role, he specified, "From Raman sir, I learnt to live in the moment rather than thinking too far ahead. Earlier, I used to get upset with any sort of criticism. At times, while going to the crease, I would think about national selection. Raman sir told me that my job is to score runs and forget about everything else.
"He took initiative to soak in some of my pressure and helped me concentrate on my game. Not to forget my childhood coach Manabendra Ghosh who has also supported me during tougher times."admit that he was a bit disappointed when he was initially not picked for the ODI series.
"I have always believed in hard work. But now I have started believing in destiny too. Otherwise, how can one explain that when I expected, I didn't get a call-up but when I least expected it, I am in the team."
Will it be huge pressure that he is replacing Yuvraj Singh, the 25-year-old Bengal captain replied, "I am not even thinking about that. I would just like to enjoy my game if I get a look-in. I am ready to perform any duty that team management would want me to perform."
The Bengal captain felt the difference from last time when he played for India is the maturity.
"I should be honest enough to admit that when I was bowled by a Brett Lee yorker in Brisbane (on February 3, 2008), I wasn't matured enough. Now I have played three more seasons of first-class cricket. I have done well in IPL against international bowlers. Definitely the confidence level and the self belief has improved," he said

We'll be better prepared against spin - Gibson

West Indies will be better prepared to combat India's spin threat in the upcoming ODI and Test series, coach Ottis Gibson has said. The West Indies batsmen proved vulnerable against spin during the drawn Test series against Pakistan, losing 32 of their 40 wickets in the two games to slow bowlers. They face a spin-heavy Indian one-day squad, which includes offspinners Harbhajan Singh and R Ashwin, legspinner Amit Mishra, and part-timers Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.

"It is not a lot of time but we have got a lot of players that have played spin and made runs against spin before," Gibson told theTrinidad and Tobago Express. "People just have to be clear what their game plan is against spin and back themselves and their ability."

The key to overcoming the spin threat, said Gibson, was to rotate the strike, something West Indies had struggled to do during the Tests against Pakistan. "Sometimes, we look very tentative and we sort of lock ourselves in a hole and then our only response is to try to hit ourselves out of the hole. We have got to find the balance between attack and defence," he said.

"They are setting us up, working us out and getting us out quite easy so we need to be able to rotate the strike against the spinners a lot more and make sure that the bowlers aren't bowling too many balls in succession to us."

The batsmen tackled spin quite comfortably in the nets, Gibson added. "We practice very well in the nets and guys chip down the wicket to the spinners in the nets, hit the ball over the top and hit the ball through the covers with ease," he was quoted as saying by AP. "But once the game starts, it seems always to be something that has held us back, certainly for the last couple of series that I have been involved in."

The Indian tour of West Indies begins with a Twenty20 international on June 4 in Trinidad. The teams then play five ODIs and three Tests.

Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Gambhir out of entire WI tour

India's already-depleted squad for the tour of the West Indies has suffered further setbacks: shoulder injuries to Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh's respiratory infection, and Sachin Tendulkar's wish to spend time with his family have ruled the four players out of the whole trip. Cheteshwar Pujara missed out on a chance to cement his place in the Test side as a knee injury picked up during an IPL game made him unavailable.

Expectedly, a number of uncapped players and those trying to make comebacks got their chance. Suresh Raina got a second chance at ODI captaincy in Gambhir's absence (MS Dhoni was rested for the limited-overs leg of the tour), and Manoj Tiwary and Shikhar Dhawan got a chance to add to their one ODI cap each. S Badrinath made a Test comeback, but the bigger news remained the uncapped players in the Test squad: Virat Kohli and Abhinav Mukund, who is almost certain to open with his Tamil Nadu team-mate M Vijay.

Mukund, a 21-year-old left-hand batsman, has impressive first-class numbers to back him: an average close to 60 over 40 matches and 13 centuries, including a triple-ton. Vijay has been an automatic choice as Test opener every time either Gambhir or Sehwag is unavailable. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman provide the experience in the middle order, which leaves Kohli, Raina and Badrinath fighting for the two remaining slots.

Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav, who were picked inexplicably ahead of Abhimanyu Mithun for the South Africa tour, got the boot, making way for Munaf Patel and an extra spinner in Amit Mishra. Pragyan Ojha, who was part of India's Test squad to South Africa but missed all ODI cricket since, returned too. Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh, though, remained the likely first-choice attack.

Parthiv Patel replaced Wriddhiman Saha as Dhoni's wicketkeeping cover in the Test squad, not least because he can open the innings should Mukund struggle or should the team management not consider him ready to debut.

As expected, the selection meeting in Chennai, attended by the new coach Duncan Fletcher, was a long affair lasting more than two hours. The timing of the Test selection is surprisingly early: the first Test begins on June 20, and the selectors could have waited longer to see if any of the injuries or illnesses could have neared healing. The long recovery period associated with the injuries to Sehwag and Gambhir would have been a factor. And because of the pneumonitis in his left lung, we will never know if Yuvraj would have been considered for a Test comeback, on the back of his World Cup heroics.

In all, India are without Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Gambhir and Ashish Nehra for the ODIs. They will also have to do without Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir and Pujara for the Tests.

Test squad: MS Dhoni (capt), VVS Laxman (vc), M Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel.

Limited-overs squad: Suresh Raina (capt), R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh (vc), Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan.