Dravid can repeat 1971 - Ajit Wadekar

Let me be frank with you. I never expected to lead the Indian team to the West Indies in 1971. I always thought the fight was between two giants, Tiger Pataudi and Chandu Borde, and that Tiger had the better chance. When the selectors met for the purpose, I was busy shopping for my little new flat with my wife. I was really stunned when I saw a large gathering, some of them of course being reporters for interviews. More responsibility and tension for sure.

Likewise, when the team was announced, there were mixed feelings amongst the critics and public. The general consensus was that it wasn't a good side to combat the mighty West Indies and that too on their own soil.

It had no Tiger Pataudi who captained the Indian team for about 11 years continuously, a record by any standard. He opted out himself. It had no batting genius like Chandu Borde. Instead, we had seniors who were not in dazzling form, youngsters like Eknath Solkar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Sunil Gavaskar, Kenia Jayantilal, Devraj Govindraj, Rusi Jeejibhoy coupled with an inexperienced captain not much heard of.

No doubt, when we landed in Kingston, Jamaica, Garry Sobers, the West Indian captain and my only idol , had the same opinion at the airport when he welcomed us. I had, of course, no words to retort except "let us wait and see" and that "we would like to be your foes on the field and friends outside". He might have been right as his team was one of the best in the world then.

He had a galaxy of superb batsmen in himself, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Roy Fredricks, Joey Carew, Charlie Davis, George Camacho with Alvin Kallicharan waiting in the wings. He also had a considerably good pace attack in Keith Boyce, Grayson Shillingford, Vanburn Holder, John Shepherd and Uton Dowe who with their barrage of bouncers increasingly intimidated us as the tour progressed.

Compared to that, our so-called medium-pace attack was in the hands of Govindraj, Solkar, Abid Ali and ML Jaisimha to certain extent. Their short-pitched delivery was not even knee-high. The only solace was that we were really better off in the spin department with the wily Bishen Singh Bedi, the deceptive E Prasanna, the steady Venkatraghavan and the moody Salim Durrani.

Yes, their umpiring wasn't that friendly to the guests with no TV to show the replays. Our showing in the first practice game against the Jamaica XI was none too impressive. Because firstly, we hardly had any practice as we missed our flight from New York. We arrived in Kingston without our kits. We had to beg and borrow or buy the cricket clothing and equipment from the local shop. To top it, we had Gavaskar and his future brother-in-law Vishwanath on the injured list from day one. It was the same case in the second outing at Montego Bay against the West Indies Board's XI.

It was high time to think of proper planning and strategy as the first Test was next. We decided to concentrate on fielding, more particularly close-in-positions for two reasons - one, to provide support to our spinning trio and another to ensure that we don't drop catches off Sobers or Kanhai or Lloyd or otherwise they would get not less than two hundreds.

We identified Solkar, Gavaskar, Abid, Venkat and myself with better anticipation and reflexes for the job. The bowlers were given specific instructions to contain these great free-scoring, cavalier batsmen and make them lose patience quickly. Thirdly, we decided to go all out when conditions and the circumstances were in our favour, rather be positive but exercise caution as well.

And lo! Our strategy started working. We also had a bonus in that some of our batsmen got into great form. Even the tailenders stood up to the attack courageously. None of the players flinched from the duties allotted to them.

I admit we had an atrocious start in the first Test as I lost the toss, and then the first day's game got washed out, and we reeling at 75 for 4. The trio of Dilip Sardesai, Solkar and Prasanna came to our rescue and how! What a knock Sardesai played, scoring 212 runs effortlessly -- the best knock I had ever seen from him in such a hopeless situation. His double century infused hell of a confidence in all of us.

In the same Test, Prasanna and Venkat got the hosts out just for 217 runs in the first innings leaving a deficit of 171 runs. That was good enough for me to enforce the follow-on against the West Indies for the first time as the difference required for follow-on is 150 runs for a four-day game as against 200 runs for a five-day game.

Sobers wasn't aware of the rule. I made it a point to go to their dressing room and asked him to bat again, albeit a little bit loudly so that all his players could hear it. That was a psychological ploy as there was no chance to win the game with only one day left and the pitch had rolled out superbly. Henceforth, the public and the West Indies players were not to take us for granted.

Luckily for me, a legend was being born for India in the West Indies. Yes, it was Sunil Gavaskar. To get a record-breaking 774 runs on his debut in just four Tests and that too on foreign soil and against one of the best teams in the world is something which ordinary batsmen just can't do!

On the whole, our main bowlers -- Bedi, Venkat and Prasanna - bowled according to plan superbly. Abid Ali's shooter uprooting Roy Fredrick's middle stump with the first delivery and those two magical deliveries from Durrani to dismiss Sobers and Lloyd in second innings of the second Test were instrumental in our win.

Rahul Dravid has tremendous scope to repeat history after a gap of 35 years. It is really surprising that India have had to wait so long. Maybe, they came close to the target but were unable to turn it into a win. Maybe, the West Indies' pace battery might have gone berserk with short-pitched deliveries and bouncers to shatter the confidence of our main batters then. Maybe, our attack was not good enough to capture 20 wickets in match.

Dravid doesn't have to worry. He has perhaps the best and most well-balanced team at his disposal. He has a tremendous batting line-up starting with himself, Sachin Tendulkar if and when fit, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag if he gets cracking, Suresh Raina the most promising youngster, Mahendra Dhoni with all the ability in the world to hit any ball if he so desires and Irfan Pathan with great potential. He has a good seam attack in Pathan, Sreesanth and Ajit Agarkar to exploit the fast tracks and humid conditions like we have in Mumbai or Chennai. He also has a good spin attack.

The West Indies team is still in the process of rebuilding and if our bowlers contain their main batsmen like Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Saravan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and, to a certain extent, Chris Gayle, victory is on the platter like we had in 1971.