The India A tour of the Caribbean in November 1999 went a long way towards firming up Murali Kartik's claims for Test selection. The left arm spinner was one of the few overt successes on that tour and the West Indian batsmen, fed on a staple diet of fast medium in their domestic arena, were simply clueless against his old fashioned virtues of flight and deception.

In the first Test at Port of Spain's Queen's Park Oval, Kartik bagged 6/75 in the only innings he bowled. His first scalp, and a prize one at that, was rival skipper Jimmy Adams. Kartik then trapped Rawl Lewis leg before with an arm ball, had Ryan Hinds misreading the flight to be caught at midon, bowled Nixon Mclean off his pads and finally had Dwight Mais and Goldwyn Prince stumped by Samir Dighe to end the innings.

The match ended in a draw as did the second Test at the Bourda in Georgetown although here India came tantalisingly close to victory. Batting first, West Indies A were bowled out for 238. Kartik was in the thick of the action, breaking the back of the middle order with the wickets of Sylvester Joseph, Lincoln Roberts and Ramnaresh Sarwan. India A proceeded to collect a 13 run lead, thanks to valuable efforts from J Arun Kumar and Mohammed Kaif.

Kartik had an even better outing in the second innings, picking up five wickets, four of them unaided by the fieldsmen. He bowled opener Parchment, came back to trap Ryan Hinds leg before, and finally removed skipper Rawl Lewis, wicket keeper Wayne Philip and Dwight Mais in a late burst, to return figures of 5/73.

The home team were knocked over for 206, leaving India A with an undemanding target of 194 in the fourth innings. In the 48 overs available they had moved to 147/6 before the curtain came down on an entertaining contest. Former West Indian paceman Colin Croft, who watched the series predicted Kartik would be seen in the Test arena very soon and sure enough the left-armer made his Test debut against South Africa three months later.