Seniors want to play only Tests in Caribbean

Senior players want to figure in longer version of WI series; Injured Virender Sehwag set to skip full tour

Seniors want to play only Tests in Caribbean

Senior players want to figure in longer version of WI series; Injured Virender Sehwag set to skip full tour

Senior players in the Indian cricket team areu00a0 keen to play the Test series on next month's tour of the West Indies, but would like to skip the one-day international series.

India will launch their Caribbean campaign with a T20 International in Trinidad on June 4 and follow it up with five one-dayers (June 6-16) and three Tests (June 20-July 10). The series has no warm-up games.

The seniors, particularly those in the ODI scheme of things, want a break after the completion of the
Indian Premier League on May 28.

The general view is that the one-day players would be exhausted after playing back-to-back in the 43-day World Cup and the 51-day IPL with just a week's gap in between.

Nothing official
The players are yet to officially convey their request to the BCCI, but have started to send feelers. India are
No 1 in the ICC Test team rankings.

The last time they played a Test series in the Caribbean under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid in 2006, India beat the hosts 1-0.

After three drawn encounters, India won the fourth and final Test in Jamaica by 49 runs to clinch their first series win in the West Indies since the historic triumph in 1970-71.

Sachin Tendulkar skipped that tour as he underwent a shoulder operation that put him out of action for nearly eight weeks.

Incidentally, Virender Sehwag may miss the series for the same reason. He is likely to be treated by London based Andrew Wallace, the same doctor who performed the surgery on Tendulkar five years ago.

Sehwag would also be out of the England tour that is to follow the Caribbean trip.

India are scheduled to play four Tests, five ODIs and a T20I between July 15 and September 16 in England.