After that really good tri-series West Indies hosted last month the men from the Caribbean don the white clothing for the next month or so when they host India in a four match Test series which should provide plenty more good cricket and spotlight the longest format of the game further.
India don’t play a lot of Test cricket so it is good to see them getting involved in a series of this size and even more so when there was no love lost between the two boards when the West Indies pulled out of their last tour of India halfway through.
Schedule
1st Test: 21-25 July at Antigua
2nd Test: 30 July – 3 August at Jamaica
3rd Test: 9-13 August at St Lucia
4th Test: 18-22 August at Trinidad
West Indies
Jason Holder’s men go into this series having lost their last three home and away series and they haven’t won a Test match in any of them so just winning a match here will be the first of their priorities. Indeed they have won just one of their last 13 Test matches so they don’t find winning easy.
A lot of attention has been created about their squad for this series with Jerome Taylor surprisingly left out and then retiring from Test matches soon after. Denesh Ramdin has been canned as well with Shane Dowrich taking over the gloves. It is an inexperienced squad it must be said.
India
India have won their last two Test series although they were in Asia so it will be interesting to see how they go outside of Asia especially having lost their four series of more than one match prior to those series wins over Sri Lanka and South Africa. That said conditions in the Caribbean are becoming more Asian like by the day.
MS Dhoni is a thing of the past in Test matches so Wriddhiman Saha will take the gloves. Lokesh Rahul will hope to regain his place in the side having impressed in the warm up matches but India are spoilt for choice when it comes to batsmen for this series.
Head to Head
This will be the 22nd Test series between these two sides and it is good to see them back to four matches after playing as many as six in a tour back when a tour was a real tour in the 70s and 80s.
West Indies have had the better of the series between them in the past with 12 series wins and two draws but India have won seven series in total including each of the last five. West Indies won none of the 15 matches in those five series either which is a worrying statistic for them here. Not since a 2-1 win in 2002 have the Windies won a series or a match against the Indians.
Odds
India are the 1/5 favourites to win the series and based on that recent record between the two sides nobody can really argue with that. Indeed the Indians are only 4/1 to sweep the series 4-0. That might be a little bit short but they are very much the likely winners based on recent history.
Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels are both 3/1 co-favourites to be West Indies’ top batsmen in the series with Kraigg Brathwaite next at 7/2. Virat Kohli leads the betting to be India’s top batsman over the four matches. He is 5/2 with Murali Vijay at 3/1 and Cheteshwar Pujara slightly bigger still at 7/2. Devendra Bishoo is no bigger than 11/8 to lead West Indies’ bowlers in the series with Ravi Ashwin 6/4 in the Indian equivalent market.
Betting
Clearly India are good things in this series it is just a case of how many they win the series by for me and you would have to say all the stats are they will win this without conceding a match but we saw in the tri-nations that the West Indies are a spirited bunch and if Bishoo can have a couple of hours of inspiration they might eek a win out somewhere.
I’m not a backer of 1/5 shots especially over the space of a month or so which means I’ll leave the series betting alone and I can’t really find a price I like on a realistic correct score so in terms of a bet I’ll head to the player markets.
I have to say I can’t decide much about the batting in this series either. With neither side having played Tests for a while the batsmen aren’t the easiest to gauge although on another day I might have taken Jermaine Blackwood as the top West Indies batsman at 7/1. If he begins well I still might do.
Instead there is just the one bet that gets my attention and that comes in the top India series bowler market where Ravi Ashwin is a favourite but it is his spin twin Ravi Jadeja that I like the look of here. I like him because the West Indies are mostly full of right handed batsmen and I like the ball that turns away from the outside edge especially when Jadeja can bowl the arm ball and bring the pad into play as well.
I don’t see a seamer taking the most wickets on these spin friendly tracks in the Caribbean and while Ravi Ashwin is a big danger I’ll go with the man turning it away from the batsmen at double the price with no less of a chance.
Tips
Back R.Jadeja Top India Series Bowler for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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