IND vs WI: Saba Karim says it’s the ‘perfect opportunity’ for West Indies to score big

Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim believes that West Indies have got the perfect opportunity to score big in the second Test against India, as the match heads toward Day three in Trinidad on Saturday.

West Indies were 86/1 at stumps on the second day, having only lost Tagenarine Chanderpaul (33) so far. Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (37*) and Kirk McKenzie (14*) remain unbeaten with Windies trailing by 362 runs.

“This is a perfect opportunity for the young West Indian side to build a first innings score and at least get into this Test match. They must apply some more pressure on the Indian bowlers on a wicket like this, and you expect this young West Indian batting line up to come good,” said Karim, an expert with JioCinema.

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Karim said that the Indian spinners have enough time to negate the turn on offer. Friday witnessed a slow track in Trinidad.

This is a challenging surface for the pace bowlers and also the spinners because the wicket is on the slower side. So even if the spinners for instance are able to deceive the batters in flight, they have enough time to go on the backfoot and negate the spin or the turn that is on offer,” explained Karim.

“For pace bowlers, they need to work out different plans all the time. Short-ball tactics may also become effective or bowling the one-wicket line may also help. We saw what the West Indian pace bowlers did to the Indian side. They angled away from the left-hander. A similar kind of tactic can be employed by the young Indian pace bowling attack. But, I think there’s a lot of work ahead on Day Three for the spin duo for Jadeja and R Ashwin,” he added.

Karim expects the wicket to offer some turn. “Day Two was a fabulous surface to bat on. On Day Three, I do expect the wicket to offer some kind of turn, not so much of bounce but the turn may be more affective for the spinners India has got. Ashwin and Jadeja should be able to exploit these conditions,” said the 55-year-old.

Earlier on Day 2, a century from Virat Kohli and fifties from Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin led them to 438. India lead the two-match series 1-0 after winning the first Test in Dominica by an innings and 141 runs.