🏏West Indies vs India, 2nd Test: Queen's Park Oval Trinidad🏏 - Page 2

India kickstarted the new World Test Championship cycle (#WTC25) with an emphatic win. On a spin-friendly track Ashwin ruled the roost as the Indian premier off-spinner picked 12 wickets in the match (5/60 and 7/71). In the batting department, debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal starred with a daddy hundred for which he was named the Player of the Match. Skipper Rohit Sharma too notched up a century while Kohli scored a sedate fifty. The visitors scored at 2.76 RPO but they hardly put a foot wrong and wrapped up the Dominica Test in three days. The action shifts to Trinidad and Tobago and once again India start as firm favourites.

West Indies managed to score just 280 runs for the loss of 20 wickets in the opening Test and not a single batsman even crossed fifty. Their batting has to improve significantly to even put up a fight against the Indians. They didn't allow India to score briskly but weren't able to create pressure consistently either. A couple of dropped catches didn't help their cause as well. Queen's Park Oval has traditionally been pace-friendly and Shannon Gabriel should get into the playing XI here at his home ground. The hosts will make at least a couple of changes with Raymon Reifer dropped and Rahkeem Cornwall ruled out due to chest infection.

Kirk Mckenzie, the 20-year-old batter who has played only a handful of first-class games, is expected to make his international debut. And if the Caribbean side decide to go with just one spinner, it'll be interesting to see who they pick - Jomel Warrican or Kevin Sinclair. Will the visitors make any changes to their winning combination for the 100th Test between West Indies and India? We'll find out. Stick around for toss and team updates....

Day 1, 9am: It's the 100th Test between West Indies and India and it coincides with being the 500th international game for Virat Kohli. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet at Port of Spain but will the contest be spice up to the occasion is a question that's likely to generate a lukewarm response, especially after the visitors steamrolled the hosts in the first Test by an innings and 141 runs. The overall record, however, is still in West Indies' favour.

Deep: "With all the talk of transition, I am most concerned about Ash and Jaduu. It will be really hard to find their replacement. Bowlers with patience and guile." Yep, Ashwin isn't too far behind Anil Kumble in terms of the impact they've had.

Thank you for the tag Viswasruti 😊

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Playing 11

West Indies (probable): 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), 2 Tagenarine Chanderpaul, 3 Alick Athanaze, 4 Jermaine Blackwood, 5 Kirk McKenzie, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Joshua Da Silva (wk), 8 Rahkeem Cornwall/Kevin Sinclair, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel/Jomel Warrican

Two days out from the Test, India captain Rohit Sharma said he was not looking to make "any drastic changes". He also backed Ishan Kishan, saying he was "very impressed" with the wicketkeeper's glovework. So it will not be a surprise if India field an unchanged XI.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Ishan Kishan (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Mohammed Siraj

ankur baid: "If this Test can have be half as exciting as the one in Manchester, its will be great." Crawley and Moeen picking up the pace does make it interesting, but it'd be quite the surprise if the scoring will be as free flowing here.

RandomFan: "My fav WI vs IND test match is that 2002 port-of-spain where Sachin scored 117 and India took a lead on that series. Nice memories watching the game late night with maroon scorecard on tv."

https://twitter.com/BCCI/status/1682019873059373056?s=20