4th Test: Rain ruins play on Day 1, West Indies 62/2 vs India

PORT OF SPAIN (Trinidad): As feared, rain came, and came with fury, to cut short play on the first day of the fourth Test here on Thursday. West Indies, who won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like a good batting track, were 62 for two when it began pouring, forcing the players back into the hut.
After a 15-minute spell in the pre-lunch session which caused large puddles to come up on the pitch cover, rain stopped to raise hopes of an early resumption.But it came back soon and stayed put for more than an hour. The umpires had no option but call off play for the day at about two pm local time. Only 22 overs were possible on the day.
With more showers predicted for Friday and Saturday, more interruptions are expected in this Test.
The match had begun after a half-hour delay as the umpires were not happy with some wet spots in the ground. The pre-lunch session was supposed to be an extended one before rain cut it short. Kraigg Brathwaite was on 32 and Marlon Samuels on 4 when play was stopped.
Ishant Sharma gave India the first breakthrough off his first delivery. He had Leon Johnson caught at forward short-leg with a nasty one which rose steeply from just short of good length and caught the batsman defenceless.
R Ashwin then spun one across the face of Darren Bravo’s bat to castle him as India looked like getting on top. Brathwaite, though, once again resisted the Indians with his stout defence and an occasional boundary. He also got a life when at four when Kohli could not hold on to a snick off Bhuvneshwar Kumar at second slip.
As expected, Bhuvneshwar swung the ball both ways in the early overs and beat Brathwaite more than once. Mohammad Shami and Ishant did not bend the ball much but bowled a good line to keep the batsmen on their toes.
India made two changes in the team, dropping Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja to bring in Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara. The Queen’s Park Oval pitch has a reputation of aiding spinner, especially from the third day onwards. In his pitch report, Jeff Dujon too said that the pitch would spin from very early in the game on even if it would be slow spin. West Indies too thought that there was something in the strip for the spinners, hence bringing in leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo in place of pacer Alzarri Joseph.
It was then surprising that Jadeja was dropped and India opted for the safety of six batsmen. This was going back on Kohli’s aggressive five-bowler theory despite having already won the series. Probably, in India’s assessment, the four bowlers playing this Test are sufficient to get those 20 wickets. The extra batsman would make sure that the team puts up a big enough total to not only put West Indies under pressure but to eliminate the need for the team to bat a second time, if possible.