There is an old truism about cricket being a confidence game. This Test might just be the turning point where West Indies acquire enough of it to play to their potential at last. For the last couple of years, the West Indian whole has been less than the sum of its parts. The delirious decline of West Indies in the '90s continued into this century partly on momentum. Defeat had become ingrained in the West Indian psyche, and their diffidence made them habitual under-performers. Though the West Indian team touched new depths in recent times, their players, man to man, are not quite all that bad. Carl Hooper has averaged 46 since taking over as captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been a rock in the middle order and Ramnaresh Sarwan has been described by many as the new Rohan Kanhai. Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds are both extremely talented strokeplayers, and Ridley Jacobs's batting gives West Indies depth and balance. And while the likes of Merv Dillon and Pedro Collins are nowhere near as good as their 1980s predecessors, they are nevertheless worthier than their figures suggest. And of course, there's Brian Lara, when he's fit.

The reason these undoubtedly talented players have never quite put it all together is easy to find: lack of application. That is a direct consequence of their low self-belief. This has trapped them in a vicious circle: because they don't believe in themselves, they don't see the need to apply themselves, and because they don't apply themselves, they don't get the kind of results that would give them self-belief.

Somewhere this circle needed to be broken, and Carl Hooper's statements before he came to Kolkata indicated that he's had enough. The team was "playing for pride", he said, and the presence of the chairman of selectors, Viv Richards, must have helped to drive that point home. To a man, the West Indians applied themselves in this game: the bowlers performed with discipline and control in the first two days; feisty strokeplayers Gayle and Hinds put their heads down and waited for the loose balls; and Marlon Samuels grinded it out superbly with Chanderpaul before lifting the tempo against a tiring attack.

If the team had to look for inspiration, they only had to consider one of their number. Chanderpaul is not as talented as any of the specialist batsmen in his team, but is a lesson to them all in diligence. If an all-time Test XI of players against India was made, Chanderpaul would be a strong contender for a place. Out of batsmen who have made 1000 runs against India, Chanderpaul stands third in terms of batting averages (at the close of today's play). With 1276 runs in 14 Tests, he averages 91 against India, behind only Everton Weekes and Andy Flower, and ahead of such luminaries as Zaheer Abbas, Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Graham Gooch. How did he manage that?

For one, India have no genuine pacemen who could trouble him with the short-pitched stuff. India rely on their spinners, and he has worked out brilliantly how to play them, especially on pitches which don't offer them much assistance. His shuffle across might seem ungainly, but with still head, poised balance and his ability to play the ball late and with soft hands, he is unusually effective against Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. He may not be pretty, but he's correct, and he's patient.

In a stretch of nine innings – seven in West Indies earlier this year and one on either side – he actually passed 50 eight times, and has hit up five hundreds and seven half-centuries against India. His conversion rate would have been even better if his team-mates weren't collapsing around him and leaving him stranded. Eight of his 22 innings against India – more than one third – have been unbeaten knocks, a testimony to his perseverance. With his team-mates falling in line, better times must surely lie ahead for West Indies.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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