Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh must have drooled in anticipation as they checked out the goings-on in Antigua. Both men are part of the one-day squad that India announced today, and the pitches that await them in the Caribbean merely reinforce the popular belief that cricket is a batsman's game. Someone like Javagal Srinath, who toiled for three days on as unresponsive a track as any you'll find, certainly won't shed too many tears over going home early. Ajit Agarkar and Murali Kartik, who are also in the 15, will experience a certain ambivalence as they cross the Atlantic – the excitement of being part of the side tempered by the prospect of a real walloping at the hands of a West Indian batting line-up in superb nick.

Wasim Jaffer, Sanjay Bangar, Shiv Sunder Das, Deep Dasgupta and Sarandeep Singh join Srinath on the long flight home and that should surprise no-one. India don't play specialist openers in one-day matches, while Bangar loses out in the allrounder stakes to Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif. Sarandeep and Dasgupta have been on the fringe of things since Guyana, and with Harbhajan Singh and Ajay Ratra around, they must have known their time for sun, sand and calypso was up.

Kaif batted beautifully at times against Zimbabwe in India recently, and showed a maturity and cool that his more experienced compatriots seldom do. Now he needs to learn how to run between wickets. He could be India's Larry Gomes, cementing together a line-up that is very high on flair, but short on reliability, Rahul Dravid apart.

Yuvraj and Sehwag are the golden boys of the new generation – all power and panache with glitzy packaging. On pitches that offer little assistance to the bowlers, the spectators perched on coconut trees could well come into their firing line.

For Murali Kartik, it's the perfect opening. With Harbhajan and Anil Kumble such a disappointment on this tour, he could earn himself a ticket to England - provided he gets a game or two. His track record under Sourav Ganguly suggests otherwise. And spare a thought for Tinu Yohannan. Not even the water boy in the Tests played so far: now he faces more time in the deckchair after Agarkar's arrival. For a player, that's not a pleasant proposition, though some of us would no doubt love to be in his place.

India's one-day squad
Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Ajay Ratra (wk), Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Tinu Yohannan.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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