After a difficult series loss against South Africa, the West played their way to a 3-0 lead against Australia in a five-match series, before suffering their first loss on Thursday.
Even so, the affair was a closely contested one, with the Windies losing by just four runs in pursuit of the visitor’s target of 189. So far for the series the West Indies has boasted an average of 167, up from the 157.4 average against South Africa.
“I think we are getting close to where we want to be. We are starting to get opening partnerships of 50 and above, we’ll take that any day,” Pooran told members of the media via an online press conference.
“In the middle overs, for the first three games we batted really well, that is something we adjusted. After the first series we played that situation well, last time we kind of faltered there a little bit,” he added.
“All in all, I think we are getting there. You can see in the end now Fabian Allen coming in to bat with Polly out, he’s played that role wonderfully for us and can actually lengthen our batting and we can depend more on Allen. So from a standing captain's point of view, I believe we are getting there.”
The 34-year-old has not played for the West Indies since representing the squad at the World Cup last year, despite controversially featuring in several lucrative T20 tournaments since then, including the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Vitality T20 Blast.
In addition, the player has failed to make much of an impression in this season’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL), which is admittedly closely watched by the panel of selectors. In six matches the all-rounder has averaged 7.40 and has a top score of 17. With the ball, he has taken four wickets.
“We just didn’t consider Russell for selection and that was it,” Haynes said of the player’s exclusion.
“We haven’t really seen a lot of Russell in playing cricket for the West Indies recently and judging from what is happening now we just decided that we would move on,” he added.
Russell has played 67 matches for the West Indies and averaged 19.50 with a strike rate of 150. He has taken 37 wickets at an economy rate of 9.18.
For the fourth straight ODI, the West Indies struggled to occupy the crease for any significant period, this time around in pursuit of India’s of 237, which could hardly be considered as overwhelming in most circumstances.
However, as has become the norm, the team struggled early on at the top of the order, with the first three batsmen combining for 46 runs. Shamar Brooks and Akeal Hosein managed to put 42 on the board in the middle of the innings and Odean Smith added 24 late on, but chasing even such a modest target would have required plenty more stability and application, particularly at the top of the order.
Pooran, who himself made 9 from 13, insists the team needs to be much better at occupying the crease and carrying on to make notable scores.
“We kept losing wickets after developing partnerships. Especially losing soft wickets,” Pooran said following the match.
“Every time someone is set, we got out at the wrong time. The top five top six batsmen did not put up our hands tonight,” he added.
The team headed into the ODI series against India on the back of a particularly rough patch of form, having lost to Ireland for the first time in the format last month. The Windies will look to avoid a sweep when they face India in the final match on Friday.
The recently concluded edition of the tournament, which was won by the Trinbago Knight Riders, did feature some of the region’s emerging talent. In fact, a list of 20 young players was, as is required, named ahead of the tournament and several players featured prominently throughout the competition.
The list included Alick Athanaze, Joshua Bishop, Leniko Boucher, Keacy Carty Roland Cato, Joshua da Silva, Dominic Drakes, Amir Jangoo, Nicholas Kirton, Mikyle Louis, Kirk McKenzie, Kimani Melius, Ashmead Nedd, Jeavor Royal, Jayden Seales, Keagan Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Shamar Springer, Bhaskar Yadram and Nyeem Young.
There are, however, a few players who remain outside this group. Leslie pointed to the example of Roshon Primus who represented Trinbago Knight Riders in the two previous seasons. Leslie believes the idea of another country-based T20 tournament could be considered.
“The CPL has a franchise model, which in my view, has not been able to expose the best T20 cricketer that ply their trade in the Caribbean,” Leslie told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“I’ll give an example of Barbados. Barbados started a T20 domestic tournament back in 2009. Every year there are some players that contribute very well. Roshon Primus, for example, does extremely well, but the opportunity for Roshon Primus to be selected, I’m not sure there is that level of transparency,” he added.
“Simply put, you can have young U-19 West Indies players given an opportunity to make the franchises because they were on a global stage. You can have the West Indies emerging players from the Super50, did very well, given an opportunity to play T20 cricket. But what happens to local Barbadian T20 players, Trinidadians, and those across the region who ply their trade and play consistently well in their domestic tournament. I believe there is very little for those persons.”
The Caribbean team is currently 1-0 down after suffering a lop-sided defeat to Sri Lanka in the first Test. In the end, the regional team lost by 187 runs, but that could have been even worse were it not for a 100-run partnership between Bonner and Joshua Da Silva. The duo were the only ones to get above the half-century mark and to say the majority of other batsmen found the going difficult would be an understatement.
Sri Lanka’s spinners were aggressive throughout, with left-arm orthodox Praveen Jayawickrama (4 for 40 runs) and off-spinner Ramesh Mendis (3 for 75) doing the damage in the first innings. In the second innings, it was left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya who grabbed an impressive 5 for 46 and Mendis (4 for 64) and Jayawickrama (1 for 28) also doing more damage.
Bonner, who looked much more comfortable after making an adjustment for the second innings, after being dismissed for just 1 from 11 balls in the first, believes that coping with the spinners comes down to better footwork.
"These are small things we need work on if we want to be more sure in our defense, and when we attack,” Bonner said.
"It's difficult when players don't get a start. In the first innings, the ball was holding and spinning. It was a different challenge in the second innings when the ball was sliding at times, and spinning too. We have to come up with smart tactics in order to play all the left-arm spinners."
The West Indies and Sri Lanka will face off in the second Test, beginning on Sunday.
In the opening match, a total of 1,182 runs were scored over five days in a stern examination of bowlers from both teams. Things did not start out that way, however, as the Windies took four wickets at the top of the first innings only for Jonny Bairstow to lead England’s recovery in the middle overs.
“I think we just have to be a bit more disciplined in the middle periods, probably a little tighter, under three runs an over, I think. Creating that pressure will help to get more wickets in the middle overs,” Brathwaite told members of the media on Tuesday.
The West Indies will have fond recent memories of facing the English in Barbados having secured a massive 381 run win when the teams last met at the venue in 2019. Brathwaite was quick to point out, however, that the team would not be preoccupied with history.
“I think it’s history, to be honest, and we really have to look more to the future and be more disciplined. I think we can draw from some things we did well, so of the players for sure, but I think we have to buckle down and start fresh.”
Despite switching formats, the Caribbean team failed to snap its losing streak against India after skipper Rohit Sharma's quickfire 64, from 44 deliveries, laid the platform for India to post a challenging 190. The team was also boosted by an unbeaten 41 off just 19 balls from Dinesh Karthik.
In pursuit of the target, the Windies failed to put any significant partnerships together and the highest individual total of 20 came from Shamarh Brooks.
Their struggles were in large part due to the efforts of India’s spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravi Bishnoi who combined to stifle the Windies at the crease. In total, the trio picked up five wickets.
“We are going to have games like this where we are going to just get shut out. The batsmen did get starts but we didn’t capitalize on those starts. We didn’t win the big moments today and it’s as simple as that,” Pooran said following the game.
The team also made changes to its typical batting order, with all-rounder Jason Holder promoted to three. He was, however, dismissed without scoring by Ravindra Jadeja.
“It was good for us to come out here and experiment a bit. The guys did show up but we need to hold our nerve in big moments, especially when the pressure is on, we need to embrace it,” he added.
The regional team’s difficult run of form in One Day Internationals continued earlier this week, after losing to Bangladesh by six wickets in the rain-affected first match. Batting first, the Windes could only manage 149 runs in their 41 overs at the crease, a total that was easily surpassed by the visitors.
Despite showing positive signs in the other formats, the West Indies continue to struggle to find any sort of consistency or tempo in ODI cricket.
“We need to find more ways to score, whether that’s picking up more singles or finding more boundary options,” Hope said in assessing the team’s issues from the first ODI.
“It’s important for us to learn that so we can find more ways to put the bowlers under pressure so that when we do get those bad balls we can find some more runs for the bowler to bowl at,” he added.
The West Indies will meet Bangladesh in the second ODI at Providence Stadium in Guyana, on Wednesday.
Chasing a sizeable 389 to win and having lost two wickets that of opener John Campbell and bowler Kemar Roach, who played the role of the night watchman, with just 10 runs on the board, the West Indies have an uphill battle. The team’s highest score for the series so far is 318, set in the first innings of the first Test.
In five innings since the team has failed to crack the 300 barrier, which a frustrated Simmons believes is partly due to getting starts but failing to carry on and post big scores. So far for the series, Kraig Brathwaite, Shane Dowrich, Shamarh Brooks and Jermaine Blackwood have all managed half-centuries but have failed to go on to triple digits.
“We haven’t had any 100s in this series yet so I’m always putting pressure on them to get it,” Simmons told members of the media via a Zoom press conference.
“It’s still a good wicket to bat on so they have to set themselves targets of getting a big 100 on this wicket. Tomorrow is only the fourth day, so we have a lot of time to bat, but we have to show the determination to get those big scores.”
Mayers dug in to put on a useful 36 from 64 balls as the Windies secured a narrow lead over the hosts at the end of their first innings, on the third day.
Resuming the day at 69 for 1, the Windies had a strong morning session, but the Sri Lanka spinners struck back to claim the team’s last seven wickets for just 87 runs.
The Windies began the second innings with a narrow lead of 49 but kept the pressure on by striking twice with two exceptional runouts to leave the hosts at 46 for 2, at the end of the day’s play. Mayers, who did his part by dismissing the dangerous Dimuth Karunaratne, insists the team must keep that attitude heading into tomorrow.
“We need to keep down the run rate and keep up the pressure,” Mayers said, following the end of play.
“We are ahead in the game now, so if we can stop them from scoring, runs are crucial heading into the last day. The least amount of runs they get is the better it is for us,” he added.
“So, if we can keep the pressure on and squeeze some wicket out early tomorrow, first hour, I think we will be good.”
Recently, several players, including team captains Jason Holder, Kieron Pollard, and Roston Chase have pulled out of the upcoming tour of Bangladesh after citing health and safety concerns. With the team about to embark on its third tour in a few months, concerns have been raised regarding the mental effect of having to quarantine for weeks at a time, in order to take part in these competitions. The West Indies were one of the first teams to resume playing international cricket when they toured England in July, under heavy quarantine restrictions. The Windies then managed to keep busy with a tour of New Zealand earlier this month and are lined up to tour Bangladesh next month.
While admitting that it was a concern that CWI took seriously and one that was still being assessed, Harper insists things have to be looked at in a positive manner in light of the uncertainty the pandemic has unfurled.
“If you look at things from the other perspective there are a lot of people looking for the opportunity to work and continuing to do. I still think cricket is providing that opportunity for several people,” Harper told members of the media following the naming of an adjusted West Indies squad on Tuesday.
“I know there is a vaccine on the horizon and in some places, it's being doled out. We don’t know how long before it gets to this region but if cricket is going to survive, we have to seek every opportunity to play the sport at the international level and continue to perform. Life in the general sense is being affected because several people are out of work and would love the opportunity to work.”
As part of attempts to mitigate the situation, the CWI has included a psychologist as part of the touring management team.
In his heyday, Roberts was part of a generation of fierce West Indian pace bowlers, a line-up which also included the likes of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, and Malcolm Marshall, who were all known for terrorizing opposition batsmen with brutally quick deliveries.
While admitting that the up-and-coming pace bowlers can at times reach top speeds, Roberts does not believe the performances have been sustained for long enough periods of time.
“What West Indies has been lacking for a while is a genuine fast bowler. We have fast bowlers, but we don’t have anyone of genuine pace who at night the batsmen can’t see because you are thinking of tomorrow. We haven’t had that for a long time,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest radio program.
The former quick believes a part of the issue has to do with the workload required to sustain top speeds throughout a game.
“Fast bowling is hard work, and a lot of people don’t like to work hard. They believe that the ball comes quicker off the pitch than when you release it. They are not prepared to put in the hard work, the donkey work," he added.
“I find that our fast bowlers can’t bowl fast for more than 2 or 3 overs. It’s because they’re not strong enough, their legs are not strong enough.”
Windies paceman Shannon Gabriel is currently the fastest of the current crop, but Roberts believes, even for him, there is a significant drop-off in pace the longer the bowler plays in a match.
“It’s your legs that carry you through as a fast bowler not just your chest…when Shannon Gabriel was bowling in the 90s, he bowled a number of balls 92, 95 but that was between 10 and 11 o clock between 2 and 3 o clock it's down to high 80s. Why, because his legs aren’t strong enough.”
In recent matches, the regional team has carved out some momentum, following up hard-fought Test series win over Bangladesh with a T20 and dominant ODI series win over Sri Lanka. Heading into the start of Sunday’s Test series, however, Simmons is far from satisfied.
“We need to improve in every area, we had a good series but there are lots of things we need to keep improving on,” Simmons told Windies cricket.
“We need to make sure we get 400 in the first innings, which is something that we are striving for every time we play. Then we have to bowl and bat even better than we did in Bangladesh,” he added.
The West Indies reached 400 first innings runs last month, in the series against Bangladesh, but reaching the total has proven to be the exception rather than the rule. Prior to that, the team got to the total against Sri Lanka in 2018.
The highest first innings total, in the last 10 years, was 590 against India in 2011, in total they have achieved the feat seven times. By comparison, Australia has achieved the feat 27 times within the same period.
The 48-year-old Rose, who played for the West Indies between 1997 and 2000, has openly admitted to being upset by the current plight of the regional team, particularly on the back of a brutal run of recent results.
After a hiatus enforced by the coronavirus pandemic, the West Indies resumed international cricket with a three-Test tour of England in July. The Windies won the first match but were badly outplayed for the rest of the series in a 2-1 defeat. The team then headed to New Zealand, last month, where they were handily beaten in both a three-match T20 series and a two-Test series where they suffered an innings defeat in both matches.
In recent times, particularly with the advent of lucrative T20 leagues, some players have been accused of putting personal gain over the pride of representing the West Indies. Rose seems to among those that hold some form of that particular view.
“We need to focus more on the success of the game than just thinking about the big bank accounts,” Rose told Television Jamaica.
“Of course the guys are going to say that they have bills to pay and family to take care of and stuff but when you are at that level of the game, representing the West Indies, one of the greatest teams of all time, you need to have a different mindset.”
The 25-year-old batsman was left out of the West Indies' previous series against Ireland and England and also failed to be included in the squad for the ongoing India tour. The issue stemmed from the fact that the player failed to achieve the basic fitness standards required to be eligible for selection.
It was not the first time Hetmyer had been plagued by the issue as he also failed to get a passing mark in 2020, ahead of the team’s tour of Sri Lanka, and then again later that same year during Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies. The Windies skipper, however, backs the player to get things right in the near future.
"I think the coaches have spoken on their assessment of Shimron. I miss Shimron when he is not around. He is a young player and a superstar in his own right. He will get it right and get back to the West Indies squad pretty soon. I will be looking forward to having him," Pollard told members of the media, ahead of the team’s first T20I against India.
"We know what he can do as an individual and he has a bright future. You can never write off a guy who is 25. My love for Shimron is paramount, and he knows that and we all know that. It is a matter of time for him to do all that is necessary to get back to the team. We will welcome him with open arms."
Recently, Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief of selectors Roger Harper set off a firestorm with an explanation that promising fast bowler Chemar Holder had been left out of the Test squad for the Bangladesh tour, in order to include an extra spinner to exploit conditions.
For some, the decision was all the more vexing considering the absence of Jason Holder, who was typically part and parcel of a four-prong pace bowling attack, and Chemar Holder’s promising debut in New Zealand where he took two wickets in trying circumstances.
For his part, in addition to pointing out that Bangladesh were exceptional at handling spin, Gray pointed to the fact that a multitude of pace bowlers had done well on Asian pitches for several decades.
“I think that they (selectors) are fixated on the conditions, you cannot be fixated on the conditions,” Gray told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“I played my first Test series in Pakistan and I got 14 wickets in three games. You want the mindset to be there. If you are telling a young fast bowler, for example, who can bowl some 90 miles an hour deliveries, that you are not going to perform well because of bowling conditions that are not really suited to your pace and your style of bowling, then you are doing the wrong thing,” he added.
“So, I think they have been fixated on conditions and there are other things to take note of for example the strengths of the opposition, the Bangladeshis are very adept at playing spin bowling.”
In order to officially book a spot in Australia next month, the two-time champions must advance from a play-off group that will also feature Ireland, Scotland, and Zimbabwe. The team will start as heavy favourites to advance from the group but the squad will feature several players that have not been in the squad for the last few months and even some who have never played the format internationally.
Since a disastrous campaign at the 2021 World Cup, the Windies have played 22 matches, but a few of the players added to the squad have not played in the majority of them over the past year. For instance, Evin Lewis has not played since the last tournament, Johnson Charles has not played for the team since 2016, Sheldon Cottrell has played sparingly since the start of the year, and Yannic Cariah and Raymond Reifer are yet to play in the format.
Having played so many matches Roberts believes the team should have been already been using a settled squad ahead of the tournament.
“We don’t have a settled team and that is the biggest problem. You don’t know what your teammate is capable of doing because he has just come into the team,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest Radio program.
“When West Indies was at its best, we had a settled team for five, ten years. If you check out Australia, Australia has a settled team, and Pakistan has a settled team. India is fiddling around with the team and just look at the issues they have been having. You need settled teams,” he added.
“We are going with a number of new players, new to the international scene. We knew for a long time that the World Cup was going to be this year, so we should have been trying our best to make sure we have a unit that is ready to go from ball one.”
Chief among that group is Sunil Narine, who was once ranked as the world’s number one spinner and a regular feature in T20 leagues around the world. Narine has not appeared in a match for the team since 2019. Also missing are the likes of big-hitter Andre Russell and Evin Lewis who have not featured for the team since last year’s T20 World Cup. Russell has been unavailable while Lewis has not taken the required fitness tests to be included in the team selections.
All three players have, however, continued to take part in the lucrative T20 leagues around the world, despite not playing for the regional team since last year's World cup debacle. Simmons admits that not having all the players the team would love to have available is not the ideal scenario but expects the cricketers to be motivated to play for the West Indies.
“I’ve made it a point of duty, anywhere that I’ve gone, I don’t think you should be begging people to play for their country,” Simmons told members of the media on Tuesday.
“I think if you want to represent the West Indies, you make yourself available for West Indies cricket,” he added.
“Life has changed in that people have the opportunity to go to different places, if they pick that over the West Indies then that’s how it is, but it doesn’t make sense me going out there and begging you to play for the West Indies because I don’t know if you will come with as strong a heart as I want you to have.”
The West Indies are currently trailing New Zealand 1-0 in the ongoing T20 series.
Some of the team’s biggest hitters the likes of Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Chris Gayle, and crafty death bowler Dwayne Bravo will all be missing when they take on New Zealand later this month.
The tour will already be a difficult one, with New Zealand proving to traditionally be a difficult place for not just the West Indies, but any team to play. Powell, however, not only sees the team as having plenty of talent to cover the missing players but also believes it provides an opportunity for younger players looking to establish themselves.
“If you should look at the depth of the team, I think it’s a very good and strong team when it comes to power hitting, even with those guys missing,” Powell told members of the media from the team’s training base in New Zealand.
“What those guys being missing does is provide an opportunity for us as younger players just before the World Cup, the start of cricket 2021, to put our best foot forward and put good performances in place and hopefully that will carry us in good stead,” he added.
The West Indies will be looking to improve on a record that has seen the hosts win the last four T20 internationals that have been played in New Zealand.
The team’s tour of New Zealand began with a T20 series last week but they did not experience a lot of joy after being easily swept aside 2-0 by the Kiwis in a three-match series. Simmons, however, does not expect any follow-on negative effect for the four-day team and admits he has been encouraged by their performance in the warm-up games. The performances with the bat in the warm-up matches will have been particularly encouraging for the team, which saw the batting line-up post scores of 366 and 571.
“The T20 and the Tests are different. The Test team has done well in Queenstown and enjoyed a tough four-day game. Now, they are coming into the Test series with some confidence, especially with the batsmen and we haven’t had that in a while,” Simmons told windiescricket.
“I think the Test team is in a good place, I’m disappointed with the T20 team but looking forward to the Test series…I don’t think the results of the T20 will affect how they think,” he added.
The Test series is also expected to be a tough challenge for the regional team who has not won a series in New Zealand since 1995.
