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What To Expect From A Rather New-Looking West Indies Test side In Australia?

image-lren8i6vWI will face ruthless AUS in 2 Test matches [X.com]

If you witnessed the last time around that the West Indies toured Australia, which wasn't that long ago and actually toward year-end 2022, then two things, in particular, would have caught your attention. 

How was the team on its last Australia tour? These were, it could be debated endlessly though without much success, recurring problems in West Indian Test cricket.

First, despite competing in a proper five-day Test match where they got a chance to bat in both innings of a game, the West Indies were only once able to compile a 300-plus score. At the Optus Stadium in Perth, the West Indies finally hung in, though in the second and dying inning of the opening Test to put together a 333 on the board.

But even Kraigg Brathwaite's 110, the top of the draw in that total, coupled with Tagenarine Chanderpaul's very Shiv Chanderpaul-like 45 that came off 126 deliveries, couldn't evade a loss. And a harrowing loss it was in that the visitors went immediately onto the back foot in their opening game itself, losing it by 164 runs. 


Familiar batting inconsistencies

But the second occurrence on that tour, one in complete polarisation to their efforts made in the first Test, underscored anything they ever did during that tour, including an absolutely unforgettable six carved by Kyle Mayes over covers that Australian commentators described as the greatest stroke they'd ever seen in a cricket game. 

image-lrena0bkWI's batting struggles were evident on the previous tour [X.com]

It didn't take long for the West Indies to resort to the absolute shambolic way of batting, which is too easily visible to the naked eye. 

They somehow managed to get bowled out for 77 at the Adelaide Oval, a wicket associated with being a batsman's pitch in the past and one where, in the same Test, their very opponents made a 500-plus score. 

In the end, another soul-crushing series defeat fell into the lap of their captain, who, at his end, did all he could. 


Brathwaite: the man who holds the fort, often alone

image-lrenbwk1Brathwaite will be WI's go-to man with the bat [X.com]

Brathwaite made 196 runs on his own, led from the front, blunted the domineering pace attack of the Australians and even stayed put for no fewer than 415 deliveries. 

But he couldn't get the support from the other end, one felt, despite his now stable opening partner Chanderpaul hanging in there in two of four innings and the lower order, including Roston Chase and even Alzarri Joseph chipping in here and there. 


What will be needed this time around?

So while the always courageous but equally under-appreciated Barbadian needs to do precisely the same, this being yet another two-Test series, what is most striking about this series is that the West Indies in Australia are without the batting support they had on them on that last tour. 

And it's this vacancy of experience in not having a Blackwood and Chase, for argument's sake, that makes the West Indies a batting unit presently in Australia devoid of lads who've cut their mettle at the Test level and amid countless fans in various stadia around the world. 


Leave nothing to chance 

That, however, does not mean that those who do not perform and score runs for the side must be included. After all, taking one's place in a side without having performances against their name is akin to taking one's place for granted. 

Indeed, you have got to earn your stripes. And which is why even as one feels excited about the likes of Kirk McKenzie and Zachary McKaskie having been included on this tour, that in the likes of Brathwaite, Chanderpaul, Athanaze and Da Silva, the West Indies have only four experienced batters in a team of eleven seems to be a likely spot of bother if not necessarily a state of crisis in Whats to begin. 

On the positive side, Blackwood, who has been an able servant of the Caribbean Test team, has been promised another go provided runs come at the domestic level games. But his not being there is just one of the underlying issues for the existing side. 


New team, new day and therefore, new changes? 

That there is no Jason Holder either, the former captain having rejected a central contract a little over a month ago, clearly suggests that the West Indies are, no prizes for guessing, experimenting towards yet another rebuilding phase. 

And credit to where it's due in that the legendary Sir Haynes is avidly trying newer and promising faces to feature in a playing eleven. 


Now it is on the youngsters to come through

image-lrenejtgAkeem Jordan in action [X.com]

Gladly, the West Indies will still have on this tour the services of the evergreen and resilient Kemar Roach as well as the rising Alzarri Joseph, fresh from his biggest high of 2023, having gone beyond 100 wickets in one-day cricket. 

This means the up-and-coming Akeem Jordan, widely rated for possessing dollops of energy and a calm head on his shoulders, will be duly supported. 

Moreover, in Motie, the West Indies will have a prominent spin option, someone who's carved his niche so far bowling to some of the leading names of the game but without appearing jittery. His best days lie ahead of him. 


Hopefully ditto for McKenzie and McCaskie

That the Jamaican and Barbadian duo will get a great chance of squaring against a quartet of Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon could not be a better opportunity against which to test their themselves and examine their strengths. 


The big question that lurks

But at the same time, the big and perhaps unavoidable question for the West Indies team at the time was whether the only available quartet, if you'd call it, of quality batters could come to the party. 

Brathwaite, Chanderpaul, Athanaze and Da Silva, with 121 Tests, must come to the party.

This suddenly new-looking Windies team that neither has Holder or Blackwood and, for some weird reason, not even Mayers, who seemed a handy addition to the Test team, will ask big runs of those who are most familiar in the absence of these redoubtable names.


The current quartet 

image-lreng8ssTagenarine Chanderpaul holds the key for WI [X.com]

We know Brathwaite can grind any attack to a harrowing halt. We also know he can score while he defends. Chanderpaul already has a double hundred to his name, and his batting offers the comfort of witnessing patience holding fort in a format that doesn't ask for anything else of a classic Test match batsman. 

Athanaze, perhaps the most exciting name in that lot, is brave and appears fearless to tackle anyone. This series will further offer a glaring view of his adaptability at the five-day level. 

But it's Joshua Da Silva, who, lest it is forgotten, hung in there three winters ago against Kyle Jamieson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner to compile a dogged 57, and that too on his Test debut, who needs to come to the party. 


For nothing else will do

No one can and should take his place for granted in a playing eleven, which, true to the West Indies' (still very) inconsistent ways, can sport an entirely different look on just any series. Remember, there was once a team to which names like Hope, Holder, Cornwall and Chase belonged. 

Today, all that remains of that time is Brathwaite and Roach, two of their most consistent and perhaps undisputedly reliable names. The rest, therefore, around them must rise and compel the fans to rally, once again, around the West Indies.