The very mention of Queen’s Park, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, brings back those sweet memories. It was here, in 1971, that India won that crucial decisive Test, resulting in their first-ever Test series victory against the mighty West Indies, then captained by none other than the legendary Garfield Sobers. Yours truly was the captain of the Indian side then.

Since then, India have won two more Tests, and two of the nine One-dayers played there.

Isn’t it a coincidence that India are opening their innings for the first time in the ninth World Cup against Bangladesh?

Bangladesh, I feel, are the senior-most among the minnows with lots of experience in international cricket. They take credit, and quite appropriately too, for beating Pakistan and Ireland in the 1999 World Cup. They have done that to Australia and India too. And just a few days back they belittled the marauding New Zealanders in the warm-up game. Mind you, the Black Caps had thrashed the Kangaroos before landing on the Caribbean islands for the World Cup.

In terms of international experience, it’s only Kenya who may come slightly close to Bangladesh.

In fact, we may be wrong in considering Bangladesh as ‘minnows’. The minnows’ woes are different from teams playing for ages at the international level. That is why some players are ridiculed for their potbellies, when one sees the others looking so athletic on the field. Just look at the way Australia and Sri Lanka thrashed and made mincemeat of Scotland and Bermuda.

On paper, it may look like a walkover for team India. The Indians are going great guns, having scalped two contenders — West Indies and Sri Lanka — at home recently. They don’t seem to have too many injury problems that some of the teams are suffering from. Their batting line-up is quite impressive, except that one of the match-winners in the team, Virender Sehwag, is still struggling to get out of his prolonged bad patch.

Otherwise, India’s is a proper mix of experience and youth. In Sachin, Sourav and Rahul, they have the players who know for certain how to farm the innings, keep the scoreboard moving and not to lose wickets for nothing in sheer desperation. Yuvraj and Dhoni are the ones who can slow down the flow if need be, and take the bowlers to task if the situation demands.

Team India will need to tone up the fielding if they want to be in the competition with the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa till the end.

The Indian bowling looks quite healthy and nicely acclimatised to West Indian conditions and to the wickets.

If the statement made by Andy Roberts, consultant to the curators of the wickets at the different venues, is true, then wickets may be good and favourable to batting, as it should be in a premium one-day tournament. Also, the boundary is too short for the bowlers’ comfort, reducing the margin of error.

This realisation was amply exhibited by our bowlers in the warm-up match against the West Indies in Jamaica. Yes, India can take solace from the stingy Munaf Patel, the aggressive and accurate Zaheer Khan, the perfect line and length of Ajit Agarkar and that wily and patriotic swinging Sreesanth. Looks like Irfan Pathan doesn’t fit into the scheme of things at the moment.

As the tournament progresses, the wickets are bound to go slower and lower, and all these medium pacers will have to resort to reverse swing more often. The inclusion of the spin duo would be essential to exploit the turn and low bounce.

Can India take lightly their first encounter in the competition? Bangladesh look quite confident having beaten the Black Caps in a thrilling finish. It is their coach, Dav Whatmore, who has made a world of difference in their outlook and attitude towards professionalism. Earlier, he was the coach of the Sri Lankans and did wonders with them when they lifted the World Cup in 1996 at Lahore.

But a coach has his limitations. He can take the horse to water, but he may not be able to make it drink. However, that might not be the case with the current Bangladesh players. They have a well-experienced captain who has over 100 ODIs to brag about. He can be well supported in the batting by Asharful, Nafeez, Rafiq and Hasan.

They are excellent fielders and are not overawed by big names in the Indian squad. Yes, their only weakness could be bowling, may be with the exception of Mortaza.

Port-of-Spain is a place where India always used to get maximum support from the locals. It may not be true now, what with the Bangladeshis already inundating these islands, but there will still be a decent level of support available.