Two years ago, the 33-year-old was one of the most explosive fast bowlers in the sport and was bought by the Kings XI Punjab ahead of the Indian Premier League season. The bowler has, however, since struggled to build on that momentum and has also been plagued by recurrent injury.
His selection would have come as somewhat of a surprise for many having not represented the T20 team since earlier this year when he played in series against India and England. The player also missed out on this season’s IPL and has not featured regularly in the CPL so far.
The left-arm seamer, who recently recovered from injury, only just returned to action for the St Kitts Patriots and has not made a telling impact so far.
In 8 overs bowled, in the three CPL matches to date, he has produced figures of 2 for 73 at an average of 36.50. The economy rate for his 8 overs bowled has also been an unimpressive 9.12. Haynes, however, believes once fully fit the player will have plenty to contribute to the campaign.
“He does the job for us up front but he is coming back from an ankle injury, so everyone is going to be assessed before we go to Australia,” Haynes said.
“I think that with Cottrell we know that he has been very good for us and that’s the reason we would select him.”
On the back of an impressive effort in marshaling the squad to defeat Bangladesh, in a two-Test series last week, calls have arisen for Kraigg Brathwaite to lead the team, ahead of regular captain Holder, for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
Holder missed out on the team’s tour of Bangladesh after being one of 12 players to pull out of the campaign due to health and safety concerns. In addition, however, the captain, who had led the team to previous tours of England and New Zealand, also admitted to experiencing a high level of fatigue, particularly having gone through several weeks of quarantine.
For Bradshaw, provided he is in a good mental state, Holder should resume his duties leading the squad.
“I would support the retention of Jason if it is that we understand his state of mind at this time,” Bradshaw told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“Jason has been earmarked as our long-term captain. Let’s recall that he’s had some success and we were very excited when we won the Wisden Trophy. He has had some success and he has been molding the team,” he added.
“He has led by example and I would want to sit down with him and understand the challenges he was going through. Because if he is still challenged it may need a situation where he is given that space to ensure that his individual performance does not suffer.”
Holder was appointed captain of the team in 2015.
The 26-year-old has long been touted as one of the region’s brightest prospects but has struggled mightily at the crease in recent years. A quick look at the player’s statistics makes for jarring reading. Hope has averaged 19.48 since December 2017 and just 14.45 since February 2019. In the 2-1 defeat against England, he averaged below 18. Such dismal form has seen his 34 Test average slip to 26.27.
Even so, the debate has raged on over the player’s continued inclusion in the team, with plenty of ferocity on either side. His proponents will point to performances like Headingley when he steered West Indies to a famous win over England in August 2017.
“He’s a great talent but Shai Hope needs to go back to the drawing board. What the selection panel has done is correct,” Wallace told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“He has struggled for three years in Test match cricket. He looked out of sorts in England and he deserves to be in Barbados working on his game,” he added.
“The lead selector said that the coach has identified a program for Shai Hope. We don’t know who will be working with him, but in Barbados, they have lots of good coaches…when we see Shai Hope again playing red-ball cricket, his physique should be different, his mentality should be different and obviously, his ability to bat and bat long should be back above even where he left off.”
Thomas burst on the scene during the 2017 Caribbean Premier League (CPL), where the fast bowler regularly clocked over 90 miles per hour. That kind of promise quickly landed the 23-year-old straight into the senior Windies set-up, where he has so far played 20 ODIs and 12 Twenty20 Internationals.
Things have, however, not been going smoothly for the player since then with bouts of indifferent form leading to a less impressive showing in subsequent seasons of the CPL. In 2018, Thomas finished with the second most wickets on 18, but the following season had just 9 and none in the 2020 edition, where he had limited playing time. Some believe the 23-year-old’s dip in form has coincided with some amount of weight gain. The player is indeed seemingly several pounds heavier than when he burst onto the scene three years ago.
“I think he has a lot of work to do. He has to get himself back in shape,” Walsh told the Mason and Guest radio program.
"He has the raw ability, talent, and pace but he has to reign himself back in and I had a very serious talk with him. If he wants his career to take off and be consistent, then he has to get himself back in shape, in fighting condition,” he added.
“That's one of the challenges that we had. A lot of people probably don’t know that behind the scenes we had to do things to stay at the top of our game. If it means running that extra lap, probably that extra bit of bowling in the nets or going to the gym. Whatever it takes for you to be able to maintain that fighting weight and good body fitness for longevity.”
In the same breath, the iconic former batsman fondly referred to as the ‘Master Blaster,’ believes any failure by the player to do so would be a great loss not just to the West Indies, but the sport as a whole.
The 24-year-old Guyanese-born batsman has been in the spotlight recently, after failing to secure an international retainer contract from Cricket West Indies (CWI). Long-touted as one of the region’s premier talents, Hetmyer has had a disappointing period, missing out on several appearances for the West Indies and twice failing a fitness test.
“You’ve got to put in the work [because] if you take half measure, then you are going to get half measure results for sure. Shortcuts in this particular profession are of no substance and I am not sure if what I am saying here now will get to him at some point, but the individual is a talented individual and there are times when I see him on the field and he is pretty playful like he is still a kid and he actually has to be a little more mature at this stage now,” Richards told the Antigua Observer.
“The guy has got too much talent and I think that if this talent goes to waste, it would be a huge loss, not just maybe to himself but to world cricket on a whole,” he added.
Hetmyer, who has played all three formats for the West Indies, last appeared for the team in a T20I series against New Zealand last year. He has, however, not played One Day International Cricket since January of last year and has not played a Test match since November of 2019.
“If he really wants to make this sport his profession and to get the maximum result that everyone feels he has in him in terms of the talent then he has got to really start looking at himself in the mirror and start to think. I think he is [24 years old] now, so he has got to be serious. When you hear some of the stuff like they fail a fitness test and all that sort of stuff then that is just totally unprofessional.”
The 24-year-old fast bowler has long been tipped to give West Indies the type of firepower typical of years gone by but is yet to completely deliver on that promise.
The young bowler has shown plenty of flashes of that prodigious talent. He put in a strong performance against England, in 2019, and took a record-breaking six for 12 on his debut for Mumbai Indians. Joseph has, however, not produced such performances consistently. Joseph, who made his debut in 2016, has taken 38 Test wickets in 16 matches and 54 One Day International wickets in 34 matches.
“It’s disappointing that he does not seem to have gone on from the time he started until now, there doesn’t seem to be any great improvement,” Edwards told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“He seems to be bowling wide of the crease to right-handers, angling it. He should get as close to the stumps as possible,” he added.
“He is not accurate, he had not been able to develop as much as you would have expected. He is not a real swinger of the ball, he is athletic, he looks like he bowls pretty fast, but he is not doing much with the ball.”
In eight matches to date, Russell has struggled to an average of 11.85, with a high score of 24. As those stats will tell you, the typically big-hitting West Indian has managed to clear the boundary rope just 6 times, reaching to it on four occasions, well short of his explosive best.
The performance is light years away from last season’s bulldozer campaign, which saw the player accumulate 510 runs from the stipulated 14 games at an average of 56.66, with a whopping 204.81 strike rate.
Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha believes a big part of the issue is that Russell has not developed his game and is the same player he was four years ago. Worse yet, he believes it could increasingly become a liability for KKR.
“Andre Russell is not an improved cricketer, he has not changed his game. You see all the top players, they have changed their approach. Andre Russell is playing just the way he was playing 4 years ago, that is a liability,” Ojha told India Today’s Sports Tak.
“Look at Jasprit Bumrah, when he came into the Mumbai Indians side and what he is today, you have to improve. You have to improve as a cricketer, cricket is evolving and you have to evolve, you cannot be stagnant.”
Russell has done a bit better with the ball, claiming six wickets at an economy rate of 9.12.
Partnered with man-of-the-match Rovman Powell, Pooran put on a near-perfect display, a combination of power-hitting, game management, and finesse. The batsman put together a crucial 70 from 43 deliveries, which formed part of a match-winning 122 partnership for the third wicket.
Simmons admits the knock was a good illustration of the type of role the team envisions the batsman is capable of playing.
“It’s been a plan since World Cup. As we saw, he is understanding his role better and better and yesterday (Wednesday) just showed exactly how we see him controlling the innings,” Simmons told members of the media on Wednesday.
“His communication and control with Rovman was a big plus yesterday,” he added.
Pooran came to the crease following the departure of Brandon King and was part of a 37-run partnership with Shai Hope before joining forces with Powell.
In total, Pooran has played 14 matches batting at the number three position, scoring a total of 356 runs, and has averaged 32.36 so far.
The defending champions are off to a poor start to the tournament after facing crushing losses at the hands of England and South Africa. With only two teams advancing to the semi-finals from the group a loss against Bangladesh would officially eliminate the struggling West Indies from contention.
Outside of the poor form of several batsmen, the team’s leadership and decision-making have also come under the spotlight in recent days. Both captain Pollard and coach Phil Simmons have faced scrutiny after a batting line-up change against South Africa, in the second match, backfired and seemed to be far more disruptive than beneficial.
Inside the dressing room, however, Pooran, the vice-captain, insists there are no doubts regarding decisions taken by the team’s leader.
"We have a wonderful captain. He knows what he's doing," said Pooran told members of the media in a pre-match press conference.
"Whatever he says goes, and we back him to make some really good decisions for us tomorrow to be successful,” he added.
Pooran is one of a handful of West Indies impact players who have struggled to find form, managing just 13 runs in the two matches so far.
The incident took place during the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy in a semi-final encounter between the teams. Lara, then the West Indies captain, was on 30 when the brutish delivery from the Rawalpindi Express spat off the pitch and caught the evading batsman in the back of the neck.
Sammy, then a 19-year-old, had watched from the bench.
“When I made my debut for the West Indies in the Champions Trophy, I remember Pakistan playing West Indies at the Rose Bowl in Hampshire. They were opening with Mohammad Sami, Waqar Younis, and Shoaib Akhtar," Sammy told The Current.
"I saw Shoaib Akhtar bowling a bouncer to Brian Lara and hit him in the head. Brian Lara fell back, probably almost unconscious. I was sitting, and I was 19 years old next to Dwayne Bravo. I literally questioned whether I wanted to play cricket again. Shoaib Akhtar did that to me,” he added.
After staying down for a while, Lara left the field injured and did not return. The West Indies, however, ended up winning the match easily with seven wickets to spare.
The 23-year-old was tipped for a breakthrough performance ahead of the England series, but that promised failed to materialise. Joseph had several bright spells of bowling when the teams met in the Caribbean last year, but in the rematch on English soil, these were few and far between.
Joseph claimed figures of 2 for 98 in the first Test, before getting 1 for 84 in the second Test. He was replaced in the final Test by off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall.
Ambrose, himself once one of the world’s premier fast bowlers, believes the young West Indian may have been guilty of being too passive.
“I was a little bit disappointed with the performance of Alzarri Joseph. The pitches they played on, obviously, they were not the quickest, but as a fast bowler, you can’t be telling yourself that boy, it’s a slow pitch so I am just going to amble in and put it on a spot, no. Whether a pitch is fast or slow, you as a fast bowler have to put out your best, and Alzarri, to me, he was bowling within himself and not looking to bowl fast,” Ambrose told the Antigua Observer.
“Alzarri Joseph is not a put-on-a-spot, hold-up-one-end type of bowler. Jason Holder, the captain, can do that. He can’t really bowl fast, but he can come at one end and put it on a spot and swing it around, seam it around and get a couple of wickets, but Alzarri is a guy who has to run in and bowl fast, look to rough up batsmen. He will look to get wickets obviously, but rough batsmen up and let them know that ‘I am here’.”
Brathwaite was replaced as vice-captain by all-rounder Roston Chase and batsman Nicholas Pooran ahead of the start of the team’s tour of New Zealand. The opener, who was first appointed the Test vice-captain in 2015, had averaged 21 from his last 15 Tests heading into the England series.
He did show signs of a promised recovery with half-centuries in the first Test, where he scored 65 and 75 in the second. Brathwaite, however, also had scores of 4, 12, 1 and 19 to average 21. According to Harper, the decision panel is hoping less responsibility will lead to more consistency from the player.
“We thought it important at this time to allow Kraigg Brathwaite, who has been the vice-captain for a while, to just pay a little more attention, to focus a little more on his batting,” Harper told members of the media from the team’s training base in New Zealand.
“He has not been in the best of form for a little while. I think he began to get himself together on the England tour, we want him to build on this. We thought the relieving of the responsibility would allow him to focus some more on his batting.”
With strike bowler Shannon Gabriel out of the upcoming series against South Africa, due to injury, the 19-year-old Seales made it into the final 13-man squad on the back of an impressive performance in the recent West Indies Best vs Best practice match.
The young fast bowler took five wickets overall, including a three-wicket burst that saw him remove the top order of West Indies Best B in the second innings.
With only one first class match under his belt, however, some have objected to the young bowler being picked ahead of those with a lot more experience. Harper has insisted, however, that the player’s performance in the practice match was enough to show the selectors plenty of what they were looking for.
“I saw a young bowler play in games where Test players and the best of our regional first class players were playing and he performed exceedingly well, better than a number of players that have been playing first class cricket over a number of years,” Harper told members of the media.
“The match was not classified as a first class match but those matches were played by the best of our regional first class players and he did exceedingly well. So, I like to think that if he can perform well in those games against those players, he had the potential to transfer that to Test games,” he added.
The series against South Africa will get underway at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia, on Thursday.
Pooran was named as the replacement for all-rounder Kieron Pollard last week, following the latter’s surprise decision to retire from international cricket a few weeks ago. The decision to appoint the 25-year-old by the Cricket West Indies (CWI) panel of selectors hardly came as a surprise as the players was already being groomed for the position.
Pooran, who had served as Pollard’s vice-captain over the last year, took charge of the team for a series against India earlier this year. For Richards who himself captained the team between 1980 and 1991, the choice was an obvious one.
“There wasn’t any other choice in my opinion. I think the young man is pretty studious about what he wants to get done. He takes his cricket pretty studiously and I am a fan of Nicholas Pooran,” Richards told the Antigua Observer.
The Master Blaster believes the player has come a long way since making his debut for the team in 2016 and has now blossomed into the role.
“Early in his career I guess there was some immaturity … but having been through the mill and where he’s at now, I think he is the perfect choice as captain.”
Holder crafted a crucial second-innings knock of 58 and took 4 wickets as the team held on for a nail-biting one-wicket win to take the lead.
However, the top allrounder has also gained plenty of attention for his actions off the field, particularly for the mentorship shown to young fast-bowler Jayden Seales. Seales was one of the highlights of the first match for the Windies after claiming an impressive five-wicket second innings haul.
“Obviously, Jason is the number one all-rounder in the world. He is very crucial, and he has done a fantastic job, obviously with Jayden. I see them having a lot of chats,” Brathwaite told members of the media via an online press conference on Thursday.
“All the guys are doing a good job, they all came together but obviously Jason is the number one all-rounder in the world so obviously he brings a lot of value.”
Brathwaite replaced Holder as captain of the team in February, following a successful tour of Bangladesh, the team has since drawn with Sri Lanka and lost to South Africa.
The 28-year-old had shown great promise alongside Shai Hope at the top of the order, scoring 134 and 95 when the West Indies successfully chased down 322 for a memorable win at Headingley in 2017.
Brathwaite then suffered a dip in form, averaging 25.33 in his last 20 Tests ahead of the England series this year. His struggles included poor showings against India and Afghanistan. The player did show a flicker of returning to form during the team’s last Test tour against England where he scored two half-centuries. Brathwaite reached 65 in the first and got 75 in the second but, however, also had other innings scores of 4, 12, 1, and 19 to average 21.
The opener though, looked good in the team’s warm-up matches against New Zealand A, where he scored 246 in the second warm-up match. The performance has encouraged the West Indies captain.
“It’s good to see our opening batsmen, including Kraigg, getting some scores. I thought he shaped up really well in England, he good a few half-centuries, got a few starts and he’s starting to look like the Kraigg Brathwaite of old,” Holder told CWI media.
“He’s obviously been a banker for us over the years, he’s had a lean patch over the last couple of years but to see him coming back into stride the way he has. I was remarking to one of the coaches that the innings I saw in Queenstown, the double hundred, was one of the most fluent innings I have seen from him. It reminded me of a Test match innings he played in Hobart where he got 97 in the second innings that was one of the most fluent innings I’ve ever seen from Kraigg but this one was similar,” he added.
“For me, his balance looks really good and he is striking the ball really well. So, let’s hope he can continue in that vein and get us off to some really good starts.”
Despite being better known for his exploits in the red-ball format, Holder’s exclusion from the first-team squad and selection as a reserve for the tournament caused shock and dismay across the Caribbean, following the announcement of the final squad next week.
In international T20 cricket to date, Holder has managed 27 matches with an average of 16.75 in 18 innings, added to that he has claimed 22 wickets. In the Indian Premier League last season, however, he put on several strong performances during his time with Sunrisers Hyderabad and also had a strong showing against Sri Lanka in the series of practice games. He did, however, struggled against Pakistan and has also failed to make a telling impact in the CPL. For Roberts, however, the player's proven quality should have been enough to see him added to the starting team.
“I was shocked because he is the best cricketer we have in the region, bar none,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest radio show.
“I’d pick him as one of the first choices for the World Cup, what is he doing in the reserves. It embarrassing for us to see how we could treat our best cricketer. Jason Holder is our best cricketer," he added.
Holder has been consistently ranked as the top, or second-best Test cricket all-rounder for the last couple of years but has not displayed that kind of dominance over the shorter formats.
Hetmyer had been dropped by the Windies ahead of an away series against Bangladesh after failing a fitness test and was expected to take his place with the Jaguars on Thursday.
However, according to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), Hetmyer did not follow the protocol associated with contracted players not on West Indies duties ahead of the game.
“Players who are not on West Indies duties but are contracted to the West Indies are supposed to report to their franchise,” GCB Secretary Anand Sanasie was reported as saying.
“Since returning from West Indies duties he has not reported to the franchise for training … which automatically makes him unavailable,” said Sanasie.
Hetmyer and Windies opener Evin Lewis fell afoul of Windies’ fitness requirements but the team’s chief selector, Roger Harper, had said the Guyanese left-hander was well on his way to getting himself together.
With that in mind, Cricket West Indies had said Hetmyer and Lewis would have been retested in another two weeks.
Next week the Jaguars will go to Grenada where they take on the Windward Islands Volcanoes and Sanasie believes whenever Hetmyer makes himself available, he will be [art of the team.
“We wish him well. Once he has made himself available he would be selected to play for the franchise,” said Sanasie.
The exclusion due to falling short of the fitness requirement is a repeat such issue for Hetmyer, who also missed out on selection in February of last year for a tour match against the same opponents. The 24-year-old Guyanese batsman has been in splendid form of late, only yesterday, crafting a masterful century to push Guyana Jaguars to the semi-final of the Regional Super50 competition.
According to Cricket West Indies (CWI) stipulations, players must pass a battery of tests that measure stamina and endurance, called the Yoyo test, before being eligible for selection.
The test is, however, not without controversy as some players who do not make the 40 grade in the yoyo test are given exemptions, at times much to the annoyance of those players who fail to meet the grade.
Hetmyer will be joined on the sidelines by fast bowlers Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas, along with West Indies vice-captain and all-rounder Roston Chase. Cottrell and Hetmyer were among 12 players who declined to take part in the team’s tour of Bangladesh earlier this month, after citing health and safety concerns.
Earlier this week, former Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dave Cameron was reported as saying that Hetmyer should replace Pollard as the team’s new white-ball captain. In further clarifying the issue, however, Cameron has since explained that he believes his administration would have done more to groom the player to take over the post by now.
With Hetmyer plagued by issues of inconsistency and fitness over the last few years, however, Ambrose does not believe having to handle the pressure of the captaincy would be the right move for the batsman at this time.
“I certainly wouldn't (make him captain). Hetmyer is a young man and could be a future captain in the making but I think Hetmyer needs to get his game in order first,” Ambrose told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“He needs to get his game in order. It’s too big a responsibility for the young man at this moment when he’s not playing as well,” he added.
“For me, I would like to see Hetmyer focus on his batting. First and foremost get it right and then who knows what can happen a few years later but I wouldn’t give it to him now, being the captain is added pressure.”
In ODI cricket, Hetmyer is currently averaging 35.29 and has played 47 matches for the regional team.
