The spineless collapse while chasing 120 at Barbados five seasons ago still haunts Indian cricket. Of all the troughs that the team has stumbled into – and that happens almost on a daily basis when they play abroad – the one at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown was the deepest. It makes for a nice little contrast with the 1970-71 tour of the Caribbean and a team that retains pride of place in Indian cricket lore. If the series victory in 1971 is cherished, so too is the remarkable run-chase at Port-of-Spain in 1975-76. Since then though, India's cricketers have brought back nothing from the West Indies but humiliation. The one that got away in Barbados is as close as they've come, as teams led by Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards subjected the Indians to fearful poundings.

Despite their recent abysmal run, West Indies start favourites on their own patch of turf. The bowlers may be cannon-fodder for the likes of Australia, but they will test the vast majority of Indian batsmen who dislike being pushed onto the back foot. Even on a placid-as-a-newborn-lamb pitch in Sharjah, Mervyn Dillon and Cameron Cuffy unsettled the Pakistani batsmen, and only some terrible fielding led to their being leathered 2-0.

The batsmen had an indifferent series against Pakistan, but things will be very different with Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan both back in contention. On paper, West Indies's line-up of Chris Gayle, Stuart Williams, Sarwan, Lara, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul can match India's. Indian bowlers have a notoriously poor record against left-hand batsmen and Lara, Gayle and Chanderpaul are as equipped as any to exploit that.

Something tells you, though, that the Indian spinners will have a decisive say in the outcome of the series. For years now, West Indies' leaden-footed and hapless displays against spin have given comic writers new life - Lara's magnificent batting against Muttiah Muralitharan when they toured Sri Lanka recently being the glorious exception.

Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble did nothing of note in South Africa, but in West Indies they are confronted by batsmen who rarely seem to have a clue when it comes to picking the ball out of the back of the hand. If India are to create an upset, and win a second series in the Caribbean, they will need the slow bowlers to be at their best. Going into a Test match with just the one spinner would be a colossal mistake, a clear case of following conventional wisdom instead of playing your best hand.

India's batting frailties were laid bare in their tour opener, against a Guyana 2nd XI that wouldn't qualify from one of the weaker zones in the Ranji Trophy. Reon Griffith, who shares his surname with Charlie of chucking fame, gave the batsmen a good working-over, and Dillon, Marlon Black and Cuffy must have rubbed their hands in anticipation. The think-tank's determination to go in with a patchwork quilt of a line-up – including Deep Dasgupta and Sanjay Bangar instead of Wasim Jaffer and Ajay Ratra – will play into Hooper's hands. Test cricket is a sport for the specialists, a graveyard for bits-and-pieces men. When it comes to opening the batting and facing a short-ball barrage, that's even truer.

No batsman likes the ball rearing up near his face. He who says he does is either a volleyball player in disguise or a congenital liar. But the truly great batsmen work around the dislike and adapt – Steve Waugh is as good an example as any. With Indian batsmen, the problem is often that the opposition can smell their fear. Fast bowlers are like cheetahs in that they pick up the scent easily. From there, it's all downhill for the prey.

It's crucially important therefore that one of the top Indian batsmen makes a statement of intent early on in the series. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag did that in glorious fashion against South Africa, but few others were good enough to carry on the crusade. If the West Indian bowlers dictate terms from the outset, there won't be any way back for India.

To many, this is India's best chance to end their overseas hoodoo. But this series also represents a great opportunity for Hooper and his young squad to restore morale that has been plummeting by the day. Make no mistake; they will fancy themselves against India. When you can't even buy a win, who better to have as guests than a team that doesn't know what it's like to win away from home?

It will be a keenly contested series between two middling to lower-rung sides, but the West Indian pacemen will make the difference. The series touted as India's big chance to overcome travel sickness could instead be one that remakes West Indian cricket.

In 1971, they wrote calypsos in honour of Sunil Gavaskar's batting. Some 30 years on, India can only hope that they don't show themselves to be collapso kings ... again.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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