Test Cricket's Sleeping Giants?

Credit: paddynapper

Two Test series begin this week that pit the two great teams of the past 30 years, West Indies and Australia, against two of the current strongest Test lineups India and South Africa respectively.

Throughout the 80's and early 90's the West Indies were a dominant force in world cricket before the all-conquering Australians took all before them for the best part of 15 years. The West Indies fall from grace has been difficult to watch with a poor infrastructure leading to some very poor on field results since the turn of the century.

Australia's tumble from the summit has been less dramatic but there can be no doubt that they are behind England, India and South Africa as Test teams at the moment. For a country so proud of it's cricketing heritage, this admission is a bitter pill to swallow.

Happily for both teams there appears some hope for the future and these two series will show how far they have come recently and where they stand. Lets first look at India v West Indies.

The West Indies tour India after their recent successful tour of Bangladesh. The 1-0 tour win was the Windies first victory on foreign soil for an amazing 8 years. Importantly there were some key performances and good signs from key personnel.

The much maligned Darren Sammy captains and his ability to get the team to play together shows promising signs. Chris Gayle leaves an obvious hole at the top of the order and the selectors have admirably plumped for youth with 21 year old Powell or 18 year old Braithwaite the replacements.

The middle order looks very strong as the emergence of Kurt Edwards and Darren Bravo to compliment Chanderpaul and Samuels has added reliability. The pace department of Roach, Edwards and Rampaul is excellent and if Bishoo, the leg spinner can step up a level then they may be able to compete for long periods in India. The patient and experienced Chanderpaul looks great value at 4/1 to be WI top scorer in the series.

India in India is a huge ask though, especially as Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir and Yuvraj all return to the team decimated by England this summer. Harbajhan, Praveen Kumar and Sreesanth have all been overlooked as the Indians search for a more potent bowling attack.

I expect the Windies to put up a decent fight but India still should win the series, possibly 2-0. Kohli is the value here to be India's top scorer, Ladbrokes are offering an amazing 16-1.