A lot to learn from Chanderpaul, Sammy tells batsmen

West Indies' spin-wary batsmen should look to Shivnarine Chanderpaul to learn how to tackle the Indian spinners in the ongoing Test series, visiting captain Darren Sammy said on Sunday.

The Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha bagged 16 out of the 20 West Indian wickets in the first Test in Delhi, which India won by five wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Apart from left-hander Chanderpaul, who scored 118 in the first innings and top-scored with a 47 in the second, most of the West Indies batsmen struggled against spin on a low and slow Feroz Shah Kotla pitch.

"The way Chanderpaul batted, got a hundred, when you are positive to spin, it is effective," Sammy said on the eve of their second Test.

"The team should look to do that more often, be cautious, show them the respect they deserve, but look to not go into our shell.

"We let them dictate too much to us and it took the experience of Chanderpaul to show us how to play on the pitch. We hope to take a page out of his book and execute it.

"We will look to counterattack, but also be more selective because it is Test cricket and we still need to bat time."

The visitors lost the last match despite taking a 95-run lead in the first innings and Sammy said their hopes in the series would depend on how they seize the key moments.

"Despite the result, we did basically control the first two days of the first Test... it took a lot of experience from that Indian batting lineup and maybe had we batted better in the second innings it would have been a different ball game," he said.

"The camp is not down, we still have the belief that once we could win the key moments of the game, which for us was losing 15 wickets for 220 runs, that was the key period of the match...

"All of us saw the test match between Australia and South Africa... How one session can affect the entire Test match.

"It is about capitalising on the key moments. Hopefully we can do it in this test match and bounce back. We never said it would be easy coming to India. It is difficult but not impossible."

The pitch at Kolkata's Eden Gardens will aid spinners and West Indies are seriously considering playing an extra spinner on Monday, Sammy said.

Off-spinner Shane Shillingford could replace paceman Ravi Rampaul, who skipped practice on Sunday as he was unwell.