PERTH: Defending champions India can clinch a quarter-final place at the World Cup on Friday with victory over the struggling West Indies at the WACA Ground.

India, who had to deal with some controversy this week over a reported incident involving Test captain Virat Kohli and a journalist during training in Perth, will be wondering which version of the West Indies squad will show up for the Pool ‘B’ fixture.

Will it be the one which lost by four wickets to second-tier Ireland, or the one which rebounded to beat 1992 champions Pakistan by 150 runs and Zimbabwe by 73 runs, or the one that lost by a whopping 257 runs to South Africa in their last match when they were bowled out for 151 in the 34th over?

Asked after the South Africa match if that large losing margin left his squad ‘on the back foot’ heading into the key match against India, West Indies captain Jason Holder seemed unconcerned.

“We’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to play our normal style of cricket,” Holder said on Thursday. “We obviously have areas to improve on in terms of our [late-overs] bowling and still ... I think once we do that, we’re still a force to be reckoned with in this competition. Today was just the first off-day with the bat.”

India, meanwhile, have had nearly a week off in Perth, the capital of Western Australia state. Their third consecutive win of the tournament came last Saturday at the WACA when the players hardly had to work up a sweat, dismissing the United Arab Emirates for 102 in 31.3 overs before hauling in that total in 18.5 overs to win by nine wickets.

India will look to continue their recent success against Chris Gayle. The explosive left-hander has not passed 50 in his last 10 one-day innings against them and not hit a century against them since 2006, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men know that does not guarantee another cheap wicket.

Just last week, Gayle hammered a record World Cup score of 215 off 147 balls against Zimbabwe in Canberra, demolishing the bowling attack like only he or South Africa’s A.B. de Villiers can do.

De Villiers gave Gayle a taste of his own medicine a few days later in Sydney, smashing a glorious unbeaten 162 off 66 balls that drew warm applause even from the awestruck Jamaican.

Dhoni conceded it was tough to have a bowling plan or set fields for batsmen like Gayle and de Villiers.

“If the individual is hitting sixes, you can’t have fields for that,” the Indian captain said. “There’s not much you can do. You certainly can’t have a fixed plan for something like that.”

As has sometimes been the case with Indian squad in the past, relations with a large travelling media contingent have soured. The team management had to deny reports that Kohli used offensive language at a journalist during a practice session.

Indian media reported on Wednesday that Kohli apparently mistook the journalist for somebody who had published a negative story about the batsman’s girlfriend, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.

Kohli was promoted to Test captaincy when Dhoni retired from the longer format during the recent series against Australia, and questions have been raised in the domestic media about his temperament and suitability for the job.

Dhoni, meanwhile, keeps getting asked how his charges have managed to stage such a turnaround in their playing fortunes. India played for three months in Australia without winning a match in the four-match Test series with Australia or in a limited-overs tri-series against Australia and England.

“When it comes to ICC tournaments, you have to raise your game as individuals and as a team,” Dhoni said on Thursday. “There’s no real secret magic to it.’

India team director Ravi Shastri also said he was not surprised by the team’s resurgence, and slammed the scheduling of the tri-series in the process.

“I think the team was mentally drained ... the boys needed to recharge their batteries and freshen up for the World Cup,” Shastri said. “The break from cricket did them a world of good as they came all guns blazing when it was required ... the script went on expected lines. And frankly speaking, I believe that this tri-series that we played was a sheer waste of time and energy.”

Teams (from):

INDIA: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny, Akshar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ambati Rayudu.

WEST INDIES: Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Jonathan Carter, Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simons, Darren Sammy,

Andre Russell, Jason Holder (captain), Sulieman Benn, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Nikita Miller.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Nigel Llong (England).

TV umpire: Billy Bowden (New Zealand).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play