India's Harbhajan Singh celebrates after dismissing the last West Indies wicket of Corey Collymore during the third day's play of the third Test at Basseterre in Saint Kitts and Nevis. - REUTERS
NEW DELHI (Reuters):
FORMER INDIA coach Madan Lal has accused the national team of becoming too scared of losing after the first three Tests in the current series against West Indies ended in draws.
India were expected to win their first series outside the sub-continent since 1986 against a team who have beaten only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in their past 10 series.
The fourth and final Test starts here today.
"We should play more positive cricket," Lal said. "I believe we are playing a lot of negative cricket."
Lal, a member of India's 1983 World Cup winning side, said West Indies' captain Brian Lara was happy to avoid defeat.
"Lara has got the results he has wanted," he said. "He doesn't want to lose and in that sense he is winning."
Lal joined former skipper Sunil Gavaskar in calling for India to field five bowlers. All-rounder Irfan Pathan and offspinner Harbhajan Singh have played only a Test so far.
In his newspaper column after the second Test, Gavaskar speculated that Harbhajan's omission could be for reasons other than cricket.
"By picking a raw, inexperienced new ball attack, with all of them bowling pretty much the same way, there was no variety in the attack," Gavaskar wrote.
"This is India's best chance to win a series in the West Indies after 1971. But to do that, they have to pick guys who can take 20 wickets, even if they don't always say politically correct things."
