Shami's Fitness, Dhawan's form key issues

New Indian team coach Anil Kumble will keep a keen eye on speedster Mohammed Shami’s fitness and opener Shikhar Dhawan’s form in their first match of the tour of the West Indies, against the West Indies Board President’s XI, which begins here tomorrow. The two-day match will be an official game in which both teams will get to bat a day each and all the players will be allowed to play. For Kumble, it will be a new beginning on what promises to be an eventful 49-day tour to the West Indian islands where Test cricket is no longer the top draw. However, the home team has six current Test players — skipper Leon Johnson, Jermaine Blackwood, Rajendra Chandrika, Shane Dowrich, Shai Hope and Jomel Warrican — and is likely to provide quality match practice to the Indians. This match will indicate as to how speedster Shami’s body holds to the rigours of the long-form game, especially when he comes back for his second and third spells. Skipper Virat Kohli had complimented Shami, terming him as someone “who bowls the ideal Test match length”. Ishant Sharma, who has had a long lay-off, is also likely to get into the groove along with Umesh Yadav, as the trio will be key to Kohli’s gameplan. For Kumble, it will be an opportunity to also test his reserve pacers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur. The top-order batsmen are expected to face around 75-80 balls at least. When India tour abroad for Test series, the general norm is for the specialist batsmen to play 75-80 balls and, in case they don’t get out, then retire to allow the others to get some practice. Dhawan, whose form in long-form cricket has been pretty patchy, will be keen to get a few runs under his belt as it is expected that he will be facing the new ball alongside Murali Vijay, who is a certainty. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane also need to get some batting time in the middle. KL Rahul would like to contend for Dhawan’s place with a couple of good knocks in the practice games. Similarly, Rohit Sharma would aim to give Cheteshwar Pujara a tough fight for a middle-order slot.Stuart Binny can come into the equation depending on what the Kumble-Kohli duo think about him as a bowling option. With the pitches in West Indies getting slower by the day, all the three spinners will take turns to roll their arm over. Barring fitness issues, Ravichandran Ashwin will be the premier spinner. In terms of pure skill, Amit Mishra is certainly ahead of Ravindra Jadeja with his ability to turn his leg-breaks and bowl the odd googly.