India have the firepower to get the job done

As the one-day international series against Zimbabwe draws to a close in the Caribbean, the West Indies will turn their attention to the upcoming five ODIs against their next opponents India. This will be a completely different kettle of fish for West Indies. While Zimbabwe linger at the bottom of both Test and ODI rankings, India have been proving their worth in both forms of the game.

Sure, West Indies have dominated the present series but Zimbabwe have not been outclassed to the degree you would have expected considering that they are without their best players. And that is good reason for West Indian fans to be a bit skeptical about the upcoming contest.

India's batting line-up, even without the injured Sachin Tendulkar, is a formidable one. Fans in the Caribbean know a lot about captain Rahul Dravid and would have seen a bit of Virender Sehwag and at least heard of the recent exploits of Yuvraj Singh. But add to those the hard-hitting Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammed Kaif and the two young guns Suresh Raina and Ramesh Powar and you get the idea that the West Indian bowling attack could be thoroughly tested this time around.

Yuvraj Singh has developed tremendously over the last 12 months and is now the finished article, and Raina and Powar look to be two young batsmen going places but Dhoni is the destroyer. He is a powerful man who could make these comparatively small West Indies cricket grounds look like indoor arenas and perhaps it would not be a bad idea if they were because, if he is not dismissed cheaply, the West Indies Cricket Board could end up with an unusually high equipment bill for lost cricket balls.

It should not all be a one-way street where powerful hitting is concerned, though, as Dravid has acknowledged that the West Indies batting line-up is not one to be sniffed at. "Any team that has players of the quality of Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, is going to be a serious batting line-up" is how he put it on his arrival in Jamaica and that cannot be denied. West Indies will have to be a lot more consistent with their performances though, it is great to have names on paper but it is the production that counts.

So, perhaps with such strong batting line-ups in both teams, it will be the team that bowls and fields better that will end up in front. West Indies should just be ahead in the fielding stakes with quick sure-handed players like Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Runako Morton and even Chanderpaul from the older brigade in the outfield but the inexperienced bowlers will have their work cut out.

India's victories in more recent times have come mostly from chasing targets and one could say that is also going to be the best chance of victory for the West Indies as well. So you could possibly see the toss in each match attracting more attention and playing a greater significance than usual.

As for the Test series, different disciplines and possibly different personnel will be involved to a degree for both teams. India have not won a Test series in the Caribbean since 1971 and have only won three of the 38 they have contested with 19 drawn, which means they have lost 16.

And while the West Indies will be drawing on past experiences and history to prepare mentally for battle, India will be trying to put those statistics behind them and concentrate on the present. They certainly have the quality and better recent form to get the job done.