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.

T20 World Cup experience will help me, says Vinay

Bangalore: Medium pacer R Vinay Kumar on Friday expressed confidence that he would be able to perform well and contribute to India's success during the one-off T20 and five-match ODI series against the West Indies.

"It is a great honour to represent the country. I will try to make good use of this opportunity and contribute to the success of the Indian team," Vinay Kumar said. © AFP

Vinay, who wears his heart on his sleeves and plays with a never-say-die attitude, felt his experience of playing the ICC 2010 T20 World Cup in the West Indies would keep him in good stead.
"It is a great honour to represent the country. I will try to make good use of this opportunity and contribute to the success of the Indian team," Vinay Kumar, who has played three T20 internationals and two ODI, said.
"The experience of having played a few matches in the West Indies during the T20 World Cup will certainly help me. I have a better understanding of how to bowl in the conditions there," added Vinay during a felicitation ceremony here.
India are to play an one-off T20 and five-match ODI series against West Indies, which begins on June 4 at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The team is expected to fly out of Mumbai on

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.

GAUTAM GAMBHIR APPOINTED CAPTAIN FOR ONE DAY SERIES AGAINST THE WEST INDIES: CRICKET NEWS

Gautam Gambhir appointed captain for One Day series against the West Indies: Cricket News

The Indian Cricket Board has appointed left-handed opening batsman Gautam Gambhir as captain of the team for the One Day International (ODI) series against the West Indies that starts later this month. India would travel to the Caribbean for a full series that includes 5 ODI and 3 Test matches.

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