The Indian cricket team is hoping the venue of the second Test, Queen's Park Oval, where it has recorded both its victories in West Indies, would inspire it to achieve greater heights.
"India has won twice here and we were very close to winning here on our last tour as well," skipper Sourav Ganguly said on Wednesday. "I hope the venue inspires us to produce something out of the ordinary."
"The last time we played here, they (West Indies) needed to bat out one and half days or almost five sessions to save the game. Clearly we seem to do well here," Ganguly said.
Of course, the fact that India have also lost three games, twice on the 1961-62 tour and then in 1988-89 when they suffered a 217 run defeat, at this venue has conveniently been forgotten.
The optimism obviously stems from a rather decent showing in the first Test in Georgetown where despite conceding a huge total, the Indians were able to fight their way back and also from the likely return of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who has been declared fit.
Harbhajan Singh, who missed the first Test due to an injury in his bowling shoulder, would in all probability be included in the eleven for this match though the pitch was sending some confusing signals.
"We had a look at the wicket. It is pretty dry but they might water it because of heat. If it is dampish, we might look to make our attack pace heavy and in that situation we need to choose only one spinner," Ganguly said. Bureau Report