While the Queen's Park Oval, where the second Test begins today, has generally offered spinners more encouragement than any other Test ground in the region, pace bowlers have also profited on pitches of sometimes dubious quality. England's second-innings dismissal for 46 in 1994 was followed a year later by Australia's capitulation for 128 and 105 on a green top.
No one is certain how today's pitch will behave after the top five inches of the square were relaid last August. In the two Red Stripe games played at Queen's Park this season, the ball has turned from day one. But Joey Carew, the West Indies selector who oversees pitch preparation here, does not think this wicket will behave the same. ``It's quite hard, and I think Courtney Walsh may well bat first if he wins the toss.''
Only two captains in the past 20 years have done that in Tests here. Richie Richardson was widely condemned for not electing to field against England in 1994. But Walsh's captaincy has an air of unpredictability about it, and he may want to exploit early moisture in a pitch with a little grass on it.
The West Indies will once more consider picking the leg-spinner Rawl Lewis, from Grenada. But if Ian Bishop reports fit after a hamstring strain, the likelihood is that the West Indies will again go in with four fast bowlers. Mervyn Dillon, of Trinidad, is on standby for Bishop. India, too, are likely to be unchanged, with both spinners expected to play.
Clive Lloyd, the West Indies manager, confirmed that Brian Lara will stay at No 4 after scoring more than 300 runs from that position in his last two Tests. He is still looking for his first Test hundred on his home island and, by all accounts, he is lucky to be playing after narrowly avoiding serious injury when he crashed his car on Wednesday.
With Trinidad having a huge Indian population, near-capacity crowds are expected. Sunday is already sold out.
West Indies (from): *C A Walsh, S L Campbell, S C Williams, S Chanderpaul, B C Lara, C L Hooper, R I Holder, -J R Murray, I R Bishop, C E L Ambrose, F A Rose, J C Adams, R N Lewis.
India (from): *S R Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, N S Sidhu, R S Dravid, M Azharuddin, S Ganguly, -N R Mongia, A Kumble, S Joshi, A Kuruvilla, B K V Prasad, A D Jadeja, R Singh, S S Karim, D Ganesh, N David.