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New Zealand legspinner Ish Sodhi was unwanted at the IPL, and often by his country, but has joined Nottinghamshire for the NatWest T20 Blast.Sodhi, 24, comes with the recommendation of Andre Adams, the former Nottinghamshire and New Zealand seamer, and will be available for the duration of the tournament.During a brief spell with Adelaide Strikers at the BBL he claimed the remarkable figures of 6 for 11, the sixth best in T20 history, against Sydney Thunder but that was not enough to attract interest from an IPL franchise at the recent auction. Overall in T20 he has 60 wickets at 21.96 and an economy rate of 7.14. He was impressive at the 2016 World T20 where he claimed 10 wickets in five matches with an economy of 6.10.”Ish is a young player whose game has really moved forward,” Peter Moores, Nottinghamshire’s head coach, said. “He’s growing fast and we’re really excited to have him. We’ve seen the impact legspinners can have in T20 cricket. With the way batsmen strike the ball, you need bowlers that can take wickets throughout the innings.”Ish is a natural attacking leg-spinner who can create pressure and get us some crucial breakthroughs in the middle overs.”Sodhi has been in and out of the New Zealand side during their current season following his omission after the tour of India. He played two T20s against Bangladesh, where he claimed five wickets, and the first two ODIs against South Africa before being overlooked for Jeetan Patel in the last two matches of the series.Unless New Zealand take three specialist spinners to the Champions Trophy he could miss out on a place in the final 15.

Match facts

March 3, 2017
Start time 0930 local (1330 GMT)

Big Picture

After the rigours of a winter in the subcontinent – and with little to show for their efforts following gruelling losses in all three formats against India – a spring sojourn in the Caribbean, three ODIs in the course of a fortnight on tour, has the distinct flavour of a rest cure. Nothing, however, is quite that straightforward for one-day cricket at the moment, as West Indies’ absence from this year’s grand jamboree amply testifies.Could it be that West Indies’ failure to qualify for this summer’s Champions Trophy is the wake-up call that cricket in the Caribbean has long needed? This time last year, of course, they were beating England in thrilling fashion in the final of the World T20, but that emotional triumph was achieved, quite literally, in spite of the WICB, which remains defiantly at loggerheads with so many of its star players, as epitomised by its failure to select the man of that match, Marlon Samuels, for these three games.But at the same time, the cosy assurances that West Indies cricket would forever be invited to the sport’s biggest gatherings has been shattered, and already their new coach, Australia’s Stuart Law, has admitted that qualification for the 2019 World Cup is the team’s over-riding priority.They are currently ranked at No. 9 in the world, one place outside the automatic slots, and it’s fair to say that West Indies’ record against England in the coming six months will make or break their ambitions. They have these three games, plus five more in the summer, ahead of September’s qualification cut-off, and there’s no time like the present to get their late push up and running.And what of England, the renaissance team of world white-ball cricket? Their stunning coming of age since the 2015 World Cup has been dissected ad nauseam but, two years down the line, Eoin Morgan’s men can no longer get away with surprising people with their potential. In particular, despite their fighting efforts in a historically heavy-scoring ODI series in India, their ambitions faltered because of the shortcomings of their bowling attack. These three matches – plus five more against Ireland and South Africa in May – will be critical to their fine-tuning process.They go into the series with a glut of absentees. David Willey, Mark Wood, Jake Ball and Reece Topley are among the seamers who might have been expected to press their claims in these three games, but injury has struck them all down and instead the stage is set for the likes of Liam Plunkett, Steven Finn and Tom Curran – newly inducted into the squad after a hefty journey from the heart of Sri Lanka.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: LLTWL
England: WLLWL

In the spotlight

Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight, out in the middle of a cricket field. That is rather how Ben Stokes feels, after admitting his discomfort at talking about his status as England’s most newly-minted cricketer. And yet, even without the small matter of USD 2.16 million in his back pocket, following his stunning acquisition by Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL, Stokes was destined to be the talk of Antigua, given what happened to the last four balls he sent down against West Indies, in the World T20 final in Kolkata. And, even if that experience had all been a bad dream, we’d still have Stokes’ last visit to the Caribbean to look back on, and that broken hand courtesy of a punched locker in Barbados. In an otherwise low-key series, his presence alone adds an element of vital intrigue.It takes two to tango, however, and in the maroon corner, Carlos Brathwaite is revving up to resume his heavy bombardment against an England bowling line-up that – for all their strides as a team – has been under the cosh in recent contests. At least, that’s how the narrative is meant to pan out. Unfortunately for Brathwaite, life hasn’t been quite that simple since Kolkata. Expectations, both personally and from West Indies’ fans, have been through the roof in the past 12 months, much like those four sixes had been. “Unfortunately, it went downhill quickly,” he told the Daily Mail. “Because of what happened that night, people expected things and I guess, for a brief period, I expected them as well. It became a negative.” He has the chance, over the course of these four matches, to reset his ambitions, and those of his team.

Team news

Kieran Powell, back in West Indies’ one-day squad for the first time in three years, could pick up where he left off by facing England in an ODI at Antigua, just as he did on his last appearance in March 2014. If selected, he is likely to open the batting with Evin Lewis, who cemented his claim to a top-order berth with 148 in a thrilling run-chase against Sri Lanka in November.West Indies (probable) 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kraigg Brathwaite, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jonathan Carter, 6 Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Ashley Nurse, 11 Shannon GabrielThough Ball remains with the England squad, he didn’t look comfortable during training and is unlikely to be risked following his knee injury. Alex Hales is likely to sit out as well as he fine-tunes his recovery from a broken hand, while Tom Curran is still in transit and won’t be in the frame until the second match at the earliest. Therefore, Sam Billings is expected to open with Jason Roy, with Jonny Bairstow squeezed out of a strong middle order. Plunkett and Finn could both feature, along with both the front-line spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Steven Finn.

Pitch and conditions

In a development that would make Antigua’s local heroes Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts weep, Caribbean wickets tend to be pretty slow and low these days. Nevertheless, England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, admitted he had been surprised by the amount of grass still in evidence on this surface. With a 9.30am start in the offing, there may be some early assistance for his seamers if he manages to call correctly and bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes’ locker punch in 2014 was not the wisest shot he has ever played, but dare one say it, his frustrations were justified. In his last three ODIs in the Caribbean (all in Antigua, in fact) he made a grand total of nine runs in three innings, and took no wickets in six overs.
• Brathwaite’s struggles to live up to his Kolkata heroics have been telling. A grand total of 248 runs at 16.53 in 18 subsequent innings, with his solitary half-century coming in his one-off Test appearance against India in Antigua. Having struck four sixes in as many balls in Kolkata, he’s managed 11 more in 301.
• It is technically an away fixture for England although, in keeping with recent Test tours of the Caribbean, the visiting support is likely to be vast. Of a ground capacity of 13,000, some 7,000-8,000 tickets have been sold to England supporters.

Quotes

“I know the media will bill the series as Carlos Brathwaite v Ben Stokes, but it’s West Indies v England.”
“We do have one eye on the Champions Trophy, getting a reasonable squad together before then and one idea of nailing down our team.”

Former left-arm spinners Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar will receive the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award this season. Starting this year, the BCCI has also decided to institute the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women with India’s first Test captain Shanta Rangaswamy being the inaugural recipient of the honour. The trio would each get a cash prize of INR 25 lakhs too.

The unheralded four

Goel and Shivalkar are two of only four non-Test players, the others being wicketkeeper Bhausaheb Nimbalkar and journalist KN Prabhu, to receive the BCCI’s lifetime achievement award. Here is the full list
1994 – Lala Amarnath
1995 – Mushtaq Ali
1996 – Vijay Hazare
1997 – KN Prabhu
1998 – Polly Umrigar
1999 – Hemu Adhikari
2000 – Subhash Gupte
2001 – MAK Pataudi
2002 – Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
2003 – Chandu Borde
2004 – Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkatraghavan, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar
2007 – Nari Contractor
2008 – Gundappa Viswanath
2009 – Mohinder Amarnath
2010 – Salim Durani
2011 – Ajit Wadekar
2012 – Sunil Gavaskar
2013 – Kapil Dev
2014 – Dilip Vengsarkar
2015 – Syed Kirmani

The winners were chosen by a three-person jury comprising the pair of Ramachandra Guha and Diana Edulji (both of them sit on the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators that presently supervises the BCCI) along with senior journalist N Ram. Former India and Tamil Nadu legspinner VV Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai, former India and Bombay fast bowler, will have been named as recipients of a Special Award for their yeoman services to Indian cricket. This award also carries a cash prize of INR 15 lakhs each.Both Goel, who played for Haryana and Delhi, and Shivalkar, who represented Bombay, never played for India. Still, their legend is well-known in Indian cricket history. In the mid-1960s, when Bishan Singh Bedi was making his mark, the question that was asked was, “is he as good as Goel?” Ironically, one reason Goel never played for India was because Bedi had cemented his position in the Indian team. The closest Goel came to play for India was in the unofficial Test against Ceylon in 1964-65.In 1985, Goel retired aged 43. He had 637 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, a record that stands to date, going past VV Kumar’s tally. He had an incredible 53 five-fors and 17 ten-wicket match hauls. Overall, Goel played 157 matches and got 750 wickets.Another young man who was denied an India berth as his career clashed with that of Bedi was Shivalkar. A product of the famous Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Shivalkar’s accuracy to land the ball repeatedly on the same spot and then spin it viciously made him unique. He made his Ranji debut at 22 and retired when he was 48. During that time, Shivalkar finished with an aggregate of 589 first-class wickets at an average of 19.69 in 124 matches, between the 1961-62 and 1987-88 seasons. Shivalkar’s 361 Ranji wickets came for Bombay, most by any bowler. He had 11 ten-wicket hauls (joint-second).Rubbing shoulders with the greats: Rajinder Goel (left) with MAK Pataudi•Rajinder Goel

While recognizing their efforts, the awards committee praised Goel and Shivalkar saying: “The two left-arm spinners traumatized the batsmen picking wickets in a heap.”Rangaswamy, who is 63, played 16 Tests for India out of which she led in 12 matches. In her own words, Rangaswamy was a batting allrounder. She shared the new ball and was a hard-hitting, middle-order batsman. There were many other notable firsts attached to her name: she scored the first Test century, hit the first six and led India to their first series victory (against West Indies in 1976). Rangaswamy, who was the chairman of the selectors till 2016, had also won the Arjuna Award in 1976.Rangaswamy was thrilled to receive the BCCI honour, and felt it was a reward to the collective brilliance of the “pioneers” of Indian women’s cricket. “It is more a recognition of the services rendered to the game of Indian women’s cricket by the pioneers, those founding mothers if I can use the word. Because had we done badly in the initial stages the game would have just withered away. We did well. We could rub shoulders with international teams and that ensured the longevity of the game. And that I feel is the single-most significant contribution of all of us. With pride I can say – yes, we did it.”

Lasith Malinga will be unavailable for the forthcoming T20 and ODI series in South Africa after a bout of dengue forced a setback in his return from injury, Malinga’s management team has confirmed.A bone bruise in his left knee had forced Malinga to withdraw from the World T20 and the IPL last year, and though he had returned to training as early as September, he had been increasing his workload in careful increments in order to regain match fitness without aggravating the injury.His illness prior to Christmas had prompted him to slow the increase in intensity of his training, however, and Malinga will now only attempt to return in time for the three-match T20 series against Australia, scheduled to begin on February 17.Malinga has played only one international match since November 2015, with multiple leg injuries having caused him substantial problems since at least the middle of 2014.In his absence, Sri Lanka will have to pick their frontline seamers from a pace battery that includes Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Gamage.The first of the three T20s is scheduled for January 20; the first of the five ODIs for January 28.

ScorecardFile photo – Rob Nicol nearly took his side to victory with an innings of 68•Getty Images

Wellington staved off a challenge from Auckland captain Rob Nicol to defend their total of 182 by two runs off the last ball of the Super Smash match in Auckland.Asked to bowl the last over, with Auckland needing 11 runs, Jeetan Patel dismissed Nicol for 68 off the second ball. The pair of SM Solia and Ben Horne brought the equation down to four off the last ball before Solia’s reverse sweep trickled down the ground to a fielder for two runs.Nicol, along with Hong Kong international Mark Chapman, had put Auckland back on track in the chase of 183 from a position of 52 for 3 in the eighth over. Both openers were dismissed in the first two overs for single figures while Jeet Raval scored 26 off 19 balls before falling to Patel. The fourth-wicket stand between Nicol and Chapman yielded 89 runs, after which Nicol and Solia shared a brisk partnership of 43 to bring Auckland closer. Nicol brought up his fifty with a flat six off 43 balls and his innings of 68 came off 52 deliveries, which included six fours.Earlier, fifties from wicketkeeper Tom Blundell and Michael Pollard held up Wellington’s innings. The pair scored a total of 135 runs in Wellington’s 182 even as only one other batsman got into double-figures. The fifth-wicket partnership between Blundell and Pollard – 116 off 61 deliveries – took Wellington past 150 after they had been struggling at 41 for 4 in the seventh over, with Nicol taking two of those wickets. Blundell scored 61 off 41 but Pollard was brutal, smacking eight sixes and two fours in a 36-ball 74.

Mitchell Marsh’s immediate Test future hinges on the vagaries of Hobart’s weather, as a pressured Australia wait until match morning before naming their XI to face South Africa at Bellerive Oval.In a scenario that echoes the prelude to the fateful fourth Test of last year’s Ashes series at Trent Bridge, the selectors Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann are waiting until the last possible moment to name their team, leaving the captain Steven Smith unable to announce his line-up, as is customary, on match eve.Marsh is likely to play as a fifth bowling option should Hobart’s weather forecast clear up and allow play on the first two days. However if the current prognostications hold true and rain blights Saturday and Sunday, Callum Ferguson will be set for a Test match debut as a sixth specialist batsman alongside four bowlers.”We’ll wait and see what happens in the morning with the weather,” Smith said. “You might not need to have that extra bowling option if there’s going to be lots of rain around and the bowlers are going to get some adequate rest with that. There’s possibilities that we could go in with six genuine batsmen but we’ll wait and see in the morning when we can have another look at the wicket and what the weather’s doing.”South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis said any signs of Australia abandoning the balance provided by an allrounder was going to be helpful to the visitors, who have fought their own team balance battles in the wake of Jacques Kallis’ retirement.”Allrounders are fantastic to have in your team, we had Jacques Kallis playing for us for all those years and it just makes the balance of the side so much easier,” du Plessis said. “So I suppose they are looking at our team and what we are doing playing specialist batters and specialist bowlers, so it would also be nice to have an allrounder as well. So if they are changing it then that means that is a weapon that they do have in their team and if they change that, then that’s good for us.”Even if Marsh does play, it appears likely he will be demoted in the batting order to No. 7, swapping places with the wicketkeeper Peter Nevill. That change would grant Nevill the same commission he holds with New South Wales as a top six batsman, while also allowing Marsh to play with more freedom at seven. “Yeah it’s possible,” Smith said of that change. “It just depends on which XI we end up with for where guys will bat. We’ll wait and see with that one.”Smith admitted Australia’s confidence levels may have dipped over the course of four consecutive Test losses, the sort of sequence that has historically cost the job of the captain or the coach. “I guess it’s a tough one, we obviously haven’t played overly well in the last little while,” he said. “We’re finding ways to get ourselves in positions where we should be able to drive the game, but we’re not executing well enough in those moments to take the game away.”We’re getting in those positions, which is a positive, but we need to find a way to make sure we really nail a team when we get on top of them. We’re letting oppositions back into the game too easily. That’s one thing we’ve talked about here, if we get in front of the game – make sure we take the game away from them and don’t let them back in.”To that end, Smith said he was looking to see members of the team take the game on at critical times, mirroring the efforts of Kagiso Rabada, JP Duminy and Dean Elgar in Perth. “I think that’s something that Australia has done very well in Australia for a long period of time,” Smith said. “We’ve been able to score big first-innings runs and identify those moments when we can take the game away from an opposition, and we’ve been able to do that.”We just haven’t been doing it of late, that’s something we’ve got to turn around. We have to identify those moments first of all and then when we do that, we have to execute well enough to take the game away from the opposition. That’s one thing we really need to work on.”One intriguing element of this week has been the presence of Australia’s former batting coach Michael Di Venuto in Hobart. Despite a strong record and robust rapport with the players, Di Venuto quit earlier this year to become coach of Surrey after being reportedly declined a request for a pay rise from Cricket Australia. He was replaced by Graeme Hick, but Smith said Di Venuto had been taken back into the confidences of the batsmen this week.”It’s nice to have him back around the group for a week in his hometown,” Smith said. “He’s a magnificent batting coach and I know he’s really enjoying his time at Surrey at the moment as head coach. That’s fantastic for him. It’s nice to have had him around and have a little bit of a chat face to face about batting and what’s going on with all that.”A few of the boys have had some throws from him, which has been great. He’s an outstanding batting coach and it’s great to have had him around to work with this week and be able to talk some good stuff about batting.”

India are missing three major batsmen – openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, and Rohit Sharma – because of injures for the first two Tests against England. Allrounder Hardik Pandya has been included in the Test squad for the first time in his career.Fast bowler Ishant Sharma returned to the 15-man squad after missing the Test series against New Zealand because of an illness. Bhuvneshwar Kumar had recovered from the hamstring injury he suffered during the second Test against New Zealand but was not picked because he had not played a first-class game since.Rohit sustained an injury to his upper thigh during the ODI series against New Zealand, and is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks, and might need surgery too. That put him out of the series. There was no like-for-like replacement for Rohit, which could mean a debut for Karun Nair or Pandya in Rajkot unless India play five specialist bowlers.Gautam Gambhir, who scored a second-innings fifty in his comeback Test against New Zealand in Indore, was set to continue as the opener for the first Test at least. He had returned to the Test squad because of the injuries to Rahul and Dhawan. Rahul missed the last two Tests and the ODIs against New Zealand because of a hamstring injury, and Dhawan was ruled out for the third Test and the limited-overs contests because of a thumb injury.Fast bowler Shardul Thakur was dropped from the squad after coming in as a replacement during the Tests against New Zealand. That he would concede his place once Ishant regained fitness was expected.

India’s injured

• Rohit Sharma – injured thigh during fifth ODI against NZ. Out for six to eight weeks

• KL Rahul – injured hamstring during first Test against NZ. Missed the remaining two Tests and ODIs.

• Shikhar Dhawan – dropped for the first Test against NZ, fractured thumb during second Test, missed the third and the ODI series.

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar – recovered from hamstring injury suffered during the second Test against NZ, but not selected because he has not played first-class cricket since

What was not expected was the selection of Baroda’s Pandya, who has played just 16 first-class matches and taken 22 wickets at an average of 33. He has already played four ODIs and 16 T20 internationals. He featured in the 2016 World T20, and was the Man of the Match on his ODI debut.MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors, saw Pandya bowl on India A’s tour of Australia, a tour that first paved his way into the ODI side and now into the Test squad.”Pandya’s pace has increased, he is moving the ball, his batsmanship has improved,” Prasad said. “And he has mellowed down as a person. He is one allrounder we thought is an equally competent bowler and batsman. And a good fielder too.”Rahul Dravid has worked hard on the mental side of his game. Now Anil Kumble is guiding him. We have three allrounders – Stuart Binny, Hardik Pandya, Rishi Dhawan. In this particular series, he scores ahead of Binny. Much quicker and better bowler than Stuart. With form and fitness, Hardik is a better option.”India are presently the No. 1 ranked team in Tests, following their 3-0 victory against New Zealand. The first Test against England is in Rajkot from November 9, and the second in Visakhapatnam from November 17.Squad Virat Kohli (capt.), R Ashwin, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Shami, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Karun Nair, M Vijay, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav

West Indies have included Shai Hope, the 22-year-old opening batsman from Barbados, in their squad for the third Test against India, which begins on August 9 in St Lucia. Hope replaces Rajendra Chandrika, who made scores of 16, 31, 5 and 1 in the first two Tests, and saw his Test average drop to 14.00, the worst by any West Indies opener who has played 10 or more innings.Hope, a right-hand batsman who is also capable of keeping wickets, has played six Tests so far, scoring 171 runs at an average of 15.54. He has been in excellent form in recent months, with two hundreds in his last four matches in the WICB Professional Cricket League four-day tournament, and a century for the WICB President’s XI in the Indians’ first warm-up match in St Kitts.The selectors have made no other changes to West Indies’ 14-man squad. India lead the four-Test series 1-0.West Indies squad for third Test: Jason Holder (capt), Kraigg Brathwaite (vice-captain), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope, Leon Johnson, Alzarri Joseph, Marlon Samuels.

Match facts

July 30-August 3, 2016
Start time 1000 local (1500 GMT)West Indies are expected to bolster their pace attack for the second Test•Associated Press

Big Picture

West Indies last beat India in Test cricket in 2002, at Sabina Park in Jamaica. They have had three close Tests since. Two of these three Tests were played in Jamaica. It is the venue that gives them the best chance to compete with India. In the last three Tests between the two sides in Kingston, only once did a team go past 300 and only one of the three Tests entered the fifth day, that too to complete formalities of three remaining wickets. Eighteen years and 15 Tests have gone since a Test was drawn of its own volition in Jamaica.Sabina Park’s bowler-friendly pitch bridges the gap between the hosts’ attack and India’s; it also draws them out of their bunkers. On both of India’s last visits to the West Indies, only Sabina Park produced a result. The endeavour has been to stay safe at other venues, and then sneak one up on India in Kingston. This year, though, the Test side has slipped so far it registered its biggest home defeat on a fairly good batting surface in the series opener in Antigua.The plan was from the template: a track with no terrors, a side stacked up with batsmen, go to Jamaica 0-0 and then see how India fare against the seaming ball. It’s a sound plan against a better team, but the problem with defensive cricket is that you have to play it excellently for long periods of time. Neither their batsmen nor their bowlers could do it for nearly long enough; not having a defensive option in Jamaica can only do them good now.India’s batsmen came through way better when they were stalled through defensive lines in Antigua. This will be a different test. While not a scary proposition, West Indies have reinforced their attack, adding Under-19 sensation Alzarri Joseph to the squad. The pitch looked neon green two mornings before the Test. India won their last two close Tests here thanks to Rahul Dravid masterclasses; if West Indies bowlers turn up, India might need something similar from their batsmen.

Form guide

West Indies LDLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
India WWWDW

In the spotlight

During the Antigua Test, Darren Bravo became only the 24th West Indies batsman to reach 3000 career runs. By the end of this series he will have played 46 Tests. Given Marlon Samuels’ indifferent Test career, Bravo should be considered the batting mainstay of this West Indies side. In the Antigua defeat, he happened to play two irresponsible shots: laze angled-bat pushes to short-of-a-length balls well away from his body. West Indies need much better from him.If it is going to be a green seamer at Sabina park, it might just be time to dial Ajinkya Rahane, who has been scoring tough runs for India through his career. He was one of India’s two specialist batsmen to fall to legbreak long hops in Antigua. There might not be room for such concentration breaks in Jamaica, especially if he is India’s last specialist batsman again.

Team news

Even if West Indies had managed to draw Antigua through defensive tactics, it was always expected they would strengthen their attack, which had only two specialist bowlers in Antigua. That the ploy failed has only reinforced the need for a change in strategy. Either Miguel Cummins, who was in the squad for the first Test, or Joseph, or both, should make it to the XI. Carlos Brathwaite or Jermaine Blackwood or both could sit out. Brathwaite, though, bowled with discipline and scored a valiant half-century in the second innings.West Indies (probable): 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Rajendra Chandrika, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Roston Chase, 6 Jermaine Blackwood/Leon Johnson/Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt.), 9 Shannon Gabriel, 10 Miguel Cummins/Alzarri Joseph, 11 Devendra BishooM Vijay has been ruled out with the thumb injury he sustained when he was dismissed on the first morning of the first Test. He played no further part in the match. KL Rahul will slot into the XI in his place. A testing-looking pitch may have sown thoughts of playing an extra batsman at No. 6, but Virat Kohli indicated India would continue with their five-bowler strategy, and said a second spinner may still be required for India to take ten wickets in the second innings.India(probable): 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 R Ashwin, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Umesh Yadav

Pitch and conditions

The pitch had a healthy covering of grass on the eve of the Test match, and Virat Kohli welcomed what he referred to as a “result wicket”. While the fast bowlers would normally be expected to do the bulk of the bowling and take the bulk of the wickets, he felt the spinners could also come into play, particularly in the second innings, given the amount of bounce expected. A moderately heavy shower hit Kingston soon after India’s practice session had ended on Friday afternoon. Rain is forecast for all five days of the Test as well.

Stats and trivia

• Since 2006, Sabina Park has clocked the best numbers for fast bowlers among venues that have hosted at least five Tests: best average (22.12) and best strike rate (48.8). Overall too the bowlers have registered the best average here since 2006: 24.74.
• Ishant Sharma averages 19.21 in the West Indies. He played a crucial role in India’s win in Kingston last time around, taking six wickets in the match.
• R Ashwin needs 17 wickets in next three Tests to join Clarrie Grimmett as the fastest man to 200 Test wickets, in 36 matches.

Quotes

“In the last Test we got starts but couldn’t carry on. Both our batsmen and bowlers need to be more consistent.”
“When you win there’s not that much room for change unless the conditions are drastically different, which they are not. There’s pace and bounce here, and I think this will help the spinners in the second innings as well.”

Adil Rashid believes he is becoming a mentally stronger bowler after a year back in England’s limited-overs sides and continues to pick the brains of Shane Warne over the art of legspin.Rashid has made an impressive start to the one-day series against Sri Lanka, conceding 70 runs from 20 overs in the opening two matches, to continue the positive impression he has created since being recalled at the beginning of last summer. He has played all of England’s white-ball matches since his return to the side.Against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, he has twice bowled his 10 overs straight through, keeping the batsmen on a leash during the middle stage of the innings, and on Friday was rewarded with the wickets of Angelo Mathews and Seekkuge Prasanna.In the modern one-day game, Rashid knows there will be times when batsmen will get hold of him – as has happened on a few occasions since his return – but is learning how to handle the pressure on the international stage.”I’ve just got to look to keep improving day by day and game by game,” he said. “I feel I’m getting better mentally and with my skills. But you can always have a bad day, a bad game or a bad series. So you have to be strong mentally.”It’s been a good 12 months for me, especially in the white-ball stuff. Every series that has gone by I’ve looked to improve. I’ve got experience as well and got more confident. I’ve looked to adapt to different conditions and teams, too. I’ve looked to study individual players, studying the strengths and weaknesses of individual players I’ve got a lot better that way.”As well as studying the players he has come up against, he has again been tapping into the vast knowledge of Warne after the pair briefly worked together during England’s series against Pakistan in the UAE last year. Warne was in Dubai on a promotional trip and attended net sessions in Sharjah where he worked with both Rashid and Pakistan’s Yasir Shah. Their paths crossed again this summer.”We had a general talk about legspin,” Rashid said. “He gave me tips and stuff. It was good to see him and good of him to give me a few tips. It was about the basics. Keeping it simple, bowling the same ball, ball after ball after ball and letting natural variation to take over from the hand and the pitch. It was about a positive mindset and keeping it simply, not really a technical thing.”While the one-day and T20 game has been good to Rashid in an England shirt, he had a tougher introduction to the Test game against Pakistan in the UAE – eight wickets in three matches at 69.50. He did show some of his mental toughness when he bounced back from a record-breakingly expensive wicketless debut innings to take 5 for 64 in Abu Dhabi and almost conjure a final-day England victory.England return to Asia later this year for Test series against Bangladesh and India with Rashid expected to be part of the touring squads. He said his Test ambitions remained “quite strong” but was not thinking too far ahead. “That’s a long way away. At the moment, I’m just trying to concentrate on the ODIs and the T20 game; whatever is in front of me. Hopefully that will take care of itself down the line.”