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India seek solitude with a clean sweep

India will attempt to find peace in the midst of chaos when they take on the West Indies at the WACA Ground today in the game that could confirm their standing at the top of Pool A.

The concept of sanctuary is familiar in a country crowded with at least 1.3 billion people, but India have managed to find even more reasons to seek serenity on this tour.

They did not win a match during the Test and one-day legs, MS Dhoni suddenly quit as Test captain amid reports of a rift with rising star Virat Kohli, who managed to enrage half the large travelling Indian media pack with a finger- wagging exchange after training at Murdoch University on Wednesday.

Even team director Ravi Shastri, the urbane former player and highly influential commentator, has bought into the dramas surrounding Team India by saying the tri-series before the World Cup was a waste of time.

While Australia and England appeared to use the tournament to hone their skills before the world's premier cricket event, Shastri suggested India would have been better off doing nothing.

"The tri-series that we played was a sheer waste of time and energy," Shastri said.

"The team was mentally drained after playing the tri- series.

"The boys needed to recharge their batteries and freshen up for the World Cup."

The defending champions have recharged so effectively that they won their first three qualifying matches and could complete a clean sweep in the pool games with wins over the West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe.

That could set up a quarter- final against Bangladesh at the MCG or SCG.

Spinner Ravi Ashwin claimed a career-best 4-25 in India's comfortable win over UAE at the WACA last Saturday and was wary of the West Indies, who will feature danger man Chris Gayle at the top of the order.

But Ashwin identified his formula for success against Gayle and the game's other batting dynamos.

"It's not just Chris Gayle, it's any other batsman in world cricket," he said.

"It's pretty simple. You've got to restrict to hitting to one side because you have three fielders and you maximise those particular three fielders and try to see how much you can restrict the hitting to that side."


  • India: *Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt.), Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.


  • West Indies: *Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Jonathan Carter, Dinesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Jason Holder (capt.), Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn. *Game starts at 2.30pm. *