Fresh From a Series Win vs UAE, West Indies Must Embrace Their Massive One Day Challenge With Full Might!
West Indies recently won an ODI series vs UAE [Source: Twitter]
While none of us are clairvoyants and have surely not graduated from some Nostradamus-esque school of accurate future prediction, it can still be said that the most important thought that’ll be going in the minds of the West Indies team in the aftermath of their UAE tour would be whether they can make it to the top spot of the impending 2023 World Cup qualifiers?
Should they make it; they’d feel it a victory like few others they’ve managed in the last half a decade given the horrid run of form they’ve been in, something that was quite similar back in the 2018-19 period, where they, alongside Zimbabwe, were the only full time ICC member to contest in the World Cup qualifiers.
Now with the recent series done and a much more massive one to go, one that would involve not only the UAE, a team the West Indies just recently faced, there’ll be the likes of hosts Zimbabwe, Ireland, Scotland, Nepal, the Netherlands and USA that’ll be pressing along.
But while there’s this massive pressure of expectations in having to face a whole set of sides they can no longer call minnows, the Windies having plummeted to a similar situation, there’ll definitely be positives the that they would like to bank upon entering the Zimbabwe-bound contests.
Where their batting is at present, then with someone like the top order specialist Johnson Charles looks sorted at the very beginning. The St.Lucian, who just months ago struck a world record breaking fastest T20I ton by a Caribbean batsman, has rediscovered his second coming in the game and a match winning fifty in the second UAE ODI only added to that newfound confidence.
Charles, who often unleashes himself from the word go, should just watch out from being overly aggressive if the mind of an untrained Caribbean cricket follower could be followed.
Together with Brandon King, perhaps in the form of his life, at the back of an ODI career-best 112 against the UAE, the opening cauldron seems sorted.
Brandon King [Source: Twitter]
While there are problems with Roston Chase, who’s anything but the batsman he was back in 2016 and 2017 given his consistencies, the likes of Shamarh Brooks, with two fine starts in the three UAE one dayers, seem to offer promise in the middle order.
Brooks has, a year back in the day, played a far more competent side in Pakistan in a white ball bi lateral series and was seen among the runs.
The recently appointed Hope, in the form of his life, with 14 one day tons already to his name and that soaring average of 50 would like to add more runs to his kitty.
The Windies would need their newly appointed captain to hit runs and not just only depend on the classy elegance to save the day.
Should Pooran, often found wanting versus spin for national duties, solve that puzzle and abstain from playing irrational strokes that perhaps offer a sense of impetuousness, then the West Indies would feel that they’ve got a strong batting unit.
It’s a shame that they’re not going to have Alick Athanaze, who hit a fiery fifty upon ODI debut just hours back, in the World Cup qualifiers.
But with the likes of Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder, there’ll be the much needed respite the team would depend on if in case too much dependence on its youth seems to weigh in on the side.
Moreover, Rovman Powell, who much like Holder and Mayers, missed out in the Sharjah one dayers, will return to reprise the role of Hope’s deputy.
This trinity, powerful and packed with experience of playing sufficient white ball cricket, is what the Windies will hope serves the team well especially under pressure.
But where their spin bowling is concerned, something that at the back of Sinclair- four wickets on debut- will finally come to rest on Akeal Hosein, who happens to be the West Indies’s stand out spinner in the last two seasons.
The ability to toss it up sans much of a worry and the uncanny talent of snatching wickets not long after he’s introduced into the attack will hopefully serve the West Indies well.
And while someone like the returning Keemo Paul doesn’t offer a damning threat, so to speak, to Windies opponents, that the Guyanese can team up with Romario Shepherd and Alzarri Joseph, the Antiguan easily the lynchpin of West Indies fast bowling, will offer further bite to the seam attack.
Holder, meanwhile, must come good and put his nightmare T20 franchise outing most recently behind him. He’s got to serve a very capable team with all the might he possesses.
It’s fundamentally speaking, now, if not never since who knows what the future may bring.
Shai Hope and his coaching staff including the newly inducted Sammy would note the team’s recurring habit of conceding one extra too many. In the recent UAE series, the side gave away 58 freebie runs, at an average of 19 a game.
Is that something the West Indies can ill afford in the tournament that decides their one day World Cup fate?
Can the West Indies play a brand of cricket that’s focused and based around purpose instead of being essentially hardwired around aimless big hitting?
One reckons, in a data driven age, where we are about as well informed about what works in the sport and what doesn’t, we already know an answer to that.
But for now; despite having their nose ahead of their opponents in each of the three UAE games, it just makes basic sense to conclude that the West Indies, two time one day World Cup winners, must not lose anything to chance.
They are not only going to represent a former bastion of excellence to which names like Sir Sobers, sir Richards, Marshal, Ambrose, Walsh, Chanderpaul and Lara brought glory, and time and again, they are responsible to guide a younger generation that perhaps evaluates success earned basis the robustness of one’s bank account and not team performances.
This present lot that’s soon to tackle the mighty Zimbabwean-bound challenge has a lot to answer and perform for.
And may it not Shai away from Hope-ing for the best!
 "Dev Tyagi")
