India’s Ravichandran Ashwin is arguably Test cricket’s best finger spinner of this generation.

Statistics never tell the whole story, but they also do not lie.

Since his Test debut against the West Indies in November 2011, Ashwin, now 36 years old, has captured 486 wickets in 93 Test matches at a miserly average of 23.61.

Deadly accurate and a huge spinner of the cricket ball, Ashwin brings an additional degree of difficulty because of his variations. Not least is his ability to spin the ball away from the right-hand batsman with very little, if any, discernible change from his off-break action.

On dry, turning pitches in India especially, Ashwin has been well nigh unplayable at times.

Ashwin’s spin partner, the left-arm, orthodox Ravindra Jadeja, doesn’t appear to spin the ball as much but he is also deadly accurate. In 66 Tests, Jadeja — preferred to Ashwin by India’s selectors in the recent Test championship final against Australia in England — has snared 273 wickets at 24.07 each.

Together and separately, they fashioned many a triumph for India who are currently rated first in Test match cricket despite their recent loss to Australia.

It all means that Cricket West Indies (CWI) knew long before the current two-Test series between the battered, bruised Caribbean side and India began that under no circumstances should the pitch be supportive of India’s two great spinners. How was it then that before lunch on the first morning of the first Test in Dominica puffs of dust were exploding from the playing surface on impact from the ball? By the end of day one those explosions were huge. Simply put, the pitch was as dry as chip — tailor-made for the spin of Ashwin and Jadeja.

Cricket watchers knew from early on the first day of the first Test that West Indies — woefully weak in batting and at rock bottom in confidence following the catastrophic 50-over World Cup qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe — would be easy pickings for India’s spinners.

I have to confess, the Dominica pitch left me in shock. Even after nearly 60 years of watching closely, I found myself taken off guard by another case of West Indies cricket shooting itself in the foot.

For a number of years — certainly for the six years that James Adams was director of cricket — I had become used to seeing home pitches for Test match cricket that either supported West Indian fast bowlers or were designed to pull the sting of opposition bowlers.

That’s what curators do the world over and are expected to do. They prepare pitches to suit their own.

Was there any guidance from the CWI to those responsible for pitch preparation in Dominica?

Could it be that soil type in Dominica combined with the extreme July heat defied the best efforts of the grounds staff?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would love to know.

It’s very true that preparing home pitches to suit Caribbean strengths — few as they are — hasn’t always worked out. That fact was shown in bad series losses to powerful India in 2019, when fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah proved more than a handful, and South Africa in 2021.

However, it worked like a charm when West Indies stunned England 2-1 in 2019 and 1-0 last year.

Presumably, the embattled West Indies — backed up as they are against the wall — will find conditions more favourable in Port of Spain for the second Test starting Thursday. Let’s see.

But whatever happens from here, Ashwin, Jadeja, and company will be smiling about Dominica for a long time to come.