India v West Indies, 2nd Test, Chennai, Day 1
Thursday, October 17, 2002

It's easy to be critical of the West Indian batting effort, but what can you really say? The truth, painful as it may be, is that they lack the ability to come up with even a respectable display in these conditions. A year ago, when the pitches in India were better for batting, they might have acquitted themselves better. But now, with the BCCI's pitch-reform work in progress, they look clueless.

I wouldn't say it's been a deliberate ploy by the Indians, but both pitches we've seen in this series have assisted spin from the first session. That said, an international side should be able to manage on a first-day track that was far from vicious. But the West Indies' younger batsmen – Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ryan Hinds – don't appear to have the skill to do any better than what they have today. Only a flat pitch would save them. Until such time as they see one, their coach has an arduous task on his hands.

Ultimately, it boils down to Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul playing the innings of their lives for the team to be competitive, and they haven't managed that so far. Technically, the most basic mistake the West Indians have made is to play on the front foot without getting anywhere near the pitch of the ball. It's easier said than done, but some of them should be looking to score off the back foot, with cuts and pulls. It would also help if they treated fuller deliveries with more respect, instead of going for the forcing shot almost every time.

What we have seen so far is an almost total lack of skill and a lack of understanding of what's required. That made it an easy day in the field for Sourav Ganguly, with even the seamers making life difficult for the batsmen. Every bowling change looked as if it would result in a wicket and as a captain, you can only wish every day was a stroll like this.

When the Indians came out to bat, the pitch suddenly looked so much better, and that was a reflection of the hopelessly one-sided nature of this contest.

Sanjay Manjrekar, the mainstay of India's batting in the late 1980s and early '90s, will be providing the Expert View on every day of this Test series. He was speaking to Dileep Premachandran

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