Wednesday, June 21 2006 14:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Basseterre (St Kitts): The second half of the four-Test series between India and the West Indies gets going at the Warner Park Stadium here on Thursday, with both teams having everything to play for.

After two Tests, it's still level pegging, the matches at St John's, Antigua and Gros Islet, St Lucia having ended in draws. India did, definitely, have the upper hand in both games, and would have won the second had it not been for the fact that the entire fourth day's play got washed out due to rain.



To hear the teams speak, all that is history, it's gone and done with and, after the four-day break, when the third Test gets going the first-ever Test in this tiny Caribbean island both India and the West Indies will start with a clean slate. As Indian skipper Rahul Dravid says, "Every match is a fresh beginning."

But as the teams prepare for the match, one can sense a difference in attitude. The West Indies are playing catch up.

For India, both Dravid and coach Greg Chappell clearly believe they are on the right track with their team selection and match tactics and feel they don't need to change their approach in their quest for victory. The two would dearly love to win this Test and eventually the series, especially after the setbacks in their last two series, against Pakistan and England, and will not concede any advantage gained. They will press ruthlessly towards their goal.

"If we do what we did in the last two matches, we will win," Dravid told newsmen after the Indian team's nets on Tuesday.



"I wouldn't want to do anything different from the first two Tests," he said.

At the start of the series, India had decided to go with six batsmen and four bowlers, giving up the more attacking five batmsen-five bowler policy in search of consistency in batting, which had bothered them in the one-dayers.



It's paid dividends for them, with the young, inexperienced medium-pace attack rising to the challenge and winning praise even from West Indian observers, including former Test bowlers, Ian Bishop and Colin Croft, both now part of the telecast/broadcast media.



"Four bowlers did the job for us in the first two Tests," said Dravid when asked whether the team missed a fifth bowler as it tried to bowl out the West Indies on the last day in two successive matches.

"In an ideal scenario, I'd like to have five bowlers but Viru's (Virender Sehwag) done very well and that gives us the fifth bowler option," he said.

"Munaf (Patel) has been brilliant in this series and VRV Singh has shown a lot of promise," added Dravid. "Sreesanth bowled very well in the second innings at Antigua while Irfan (Pathan) had a couple of good spells in St Lucia ," he said.



A day earlier, Chappell had said something similar, "I think we have the right balance. I'm not complaining about the bowling."



So it seems fairly certain that India will play four mainline bowlers but there could be a change from three medium-pacers and one spinner (Anil Kumble) to two medium-pacers and two spinners, with Harbhajan getting the nod ahead of VRV Singh.

Dravid played the cards close to his chest, he would not reveal anything except to say that



"We have seven bowlers to choose from and we'll decide the final combination after seeing the pitch tomorrow (Wedensday)," he said.



It's not the same happy situation for the West Indies. They had the advantage after winning the one-day series and even after their escape in the first Test, skipper Brian Lara felt they had not lost it.



But things have changed after the second. Despite Lara's return to form, as his epic hundred in the second innings at St Lucia showed, the West Indies have accepted they are not batting well, as scores of 298 for 9, 215 and 294 for 7, in their last three innings indicates. That's why the selectors have included Marlon Samuels in the 13 for the Test and dropped spinner Dave Mohammed.



Lara has often said during this series that he has wanted a balanced attack, meaning one which didn't rely excessively on pace, and, after the drawn second Test, specifically asked for a "fast" bowler. With Fidel Edwards out with injury, his call to his selectors meant he wanted either Jerome Powell or Tino Best.



He's got Samuels instead. Clearly, the selectors are playing safe, bringing in an extra bat, who can bowl a bit, at the cost of a genuine bowler. Local journalists see this as a defensive move, one which puts safety first and the the pursuit of victory second.

It's a minor victory for the Indians, an off-the-field one. Now they have to do it on the field.