Hooper: Drakes Could Be World Cup Ace

West Indies captain Carl Hooper believes the early success in the ODI series against India is helping to shape the side for next year's World Cup campaign in South Africa and he's particularly pleased with the efforts of all-rounder Vasbert Drakes.

"Barring an injury or two, we are in the process of identifying the men we will need for the World Cup. Vasbert Drakes is experienced and on a given day could perform the role of a genuine all-rounder - an all-round cricketer every team needs in one-day arena," Hooper wrote in a column for the Press Trust of India (PTI).

"Our batting is beginning to jell well and it would look still better when Brian Lara is back. It looks to be a good nucleus for the World Cup," Hooper added.

Drakes has not dominated any of the matches on the tour so far but it is clear his value to the team has not gone unnoticed by Hooper and the West Indies selectors. The Barbadian fast bowler, who makes a living as a pro on the South Africa circuit, was not named in the Test team but has played in the last two ODI tournaments.

Hooper's column, which is written primarily for an Indian audience, focused on headaches faced by Indian captain Saurav Ganguly in trying to gamble with batting line-up experiments and still try to win the games.

"India has also experimented with their batting line-up in the first two games. Ajit Agarkar has come in at number three position and I can understand their point of view. They want to be flexible with their seven batters and try out different combinations," Hooper said, noting it was important to "test the nuts and bolts" of a team for a tournament as major as World Cup.

However, he said: "It is important to ensure though that in this quest for experiment, the team's confidence is not damaged by a run of defeats. A team should prefer to go to South Africa with the confidence of having played good one-day cricket, preferably the winning type."

"It is natural for the Indians to feel a bit concerned about their main spinners. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh are proven match-winners but they haven't been a force in the first two games of this one-day series.

"Let us first discount the handicaps which any bowler, spin or pace, face in a one-day arena. You could have attacking fields in test cricket but one-dayers leave you with no such support. Spinners suffer more since there are less close-in catchers. Also, unlike pace men, they don't get many of their victims by way of bowled," he added.

Hooper said the wickets in the first two games have been good one-day strips but they didn't give the Indian spinners the kind of assistance they enjoyed in the test series.

"The worry for Indians is that not only these fine bowlers have failed to take wickets, they have also gone for runs. They are the leading Indian bowlers yet have gone for five-six runs an over. It is not easy to replace them either. It is difficult to opt for such an extreme option.

"The next world cup will be staged in South Africa and as we all know the wickets there are seamer-friendly. Both India and West Indies could have a problem in spin area. Both prefer to have 20 of their 50 overs bowled by spin bowlers," Hooper said.

On choosing to bowl first in the two ODIs, Hooper said: "I had little hesitation to opt to field first on winning the toss in the second game. These are small grounds and it is difficult to know what is a good score on these fields. You could make a score in excess of 300 and still not be sure if it is a safe total."

"The wickets have been good and all it needs is for two batters to have a partnership going. If two batsmen fire together early in the innings, it becomes easier for the following batsmen to pace the tempo accordingly," the West Indies skipper added.