Dull pitch, slow crawl as India eye easy win

Sometimes a knife gets sharpened in the dullest of battles. The second Test at Kotla will perhaps be described by many as one such battle - the pitch wasn't doing much, the West Indies batters were playing to their own rhythm with a win out of sight and the Indian bowlers were struggling to find the right length. Yes, it was all happening but it was happening at a slow, sleepy pace.

- Ashish Magotra

But just as friction sharpens a knife, these struggles build character, resilience, and skill. For some of the younger members of the India team, it was an opportunity to do just that. And among those youngsters would be skipper Shubman Gill.

At close of play on Day 4, India were just 58 runs away from sealing a 2-0 series win. John Campbell (115), Shai Hope (103) and Justin Greaves (50*) batted with great determination but West Indies were so far behind in the game that even that wasn't enough.

The tour of England and its five-day Tests challenged everyone in both teams. In this series, Ahmedabad was over in quick time. But Delhi - with its low on bounce and flat track - needed a different approach.

Watching Gill go about captaining the side made one wonder whether Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma would have tried something a bit more out of the box.