There was a time when India Vs. West Indies was a keenly awaited series especially in India. When West Indies team was a champion team and India was just about rising. There was Lara Vs. Tendulkar and West Indian pace attack Vs. Indian spinners.
Sadly this time around there is hardly any hype about the tour. India play 5 ODIs, 3 Tests and 1 T20 in the tour with no other tour matches.
The schedule is tight nd the interest is quite low with many of the Indian tops stars giving this tour a miss. Suresh Raina captains the young Indian ODI and T20 side and most of the youngsters in the team are pushing for their place in the regular side and for them this series is a great opportunity to do that. New coach Duncan Fletcher will have his task cut-out. Test side would be more regular with stalwarts Dravid and Laxman along with Dhoni and Zaheer returning to the side. Tendulkar will be missed and this will be the 2nd West Indies tour he would be missing after the first one in 2006. Regular opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir will also be missed and Murali Vijay and perhaps Abhinav Mukund can make a strong claim as a backup opener for future tours. Indian pace attack will have a chance to bowl on different pitches than sub-continent to prepare for bigger series ahead. There is plenty to look forward to for the die-hard cricket lovers.
As far as my prediction goes India should win the lone T20 and should win the ODI series at least 4-1, anything less should be considered as a failure. As far as tests goes anything less than 3-0 should not be acceptable to the Indian fans.
Station of Disorientation 