Why the West Indies should bat along with Fabian Allen

Allen looking to make a name for himself once again [PC: Twitter]

It’s a no brainer to ask why Fabian Allen would want selection in the West Indies cricket side for the T20 World Cup. It’s the World Cup. It’s T20 format. It’s West Indies, two time winners, participating in it. Blah blah blah. 

 But it makes perfect sense to question the current credentials of Fabian Allen, who’s made himself available for the mother of all T20I battles. 

 Not blah blah blah. 

 The Fabian Allen we are seeing today is, lest it is forgotten, a frail shadow of the Fabian Allen that emerged in 2019, and that too, in an even bigger stage of the sport: the ODI World Cup. 

 Can’t remember? Need some memory refreshing tablet? Well, don’t have; needlessly popping pills isn’t a healthy habit. 

 If anyone who follows the West Indies cricket closely claims to remember the 2019 ODI World Cup - then something more than Brathwaite’s inspiring century (v Black Caps) would come to the mind. 

 How? 

When Fabian Allen showed his class

 The game was against Sri Lanka. The West Indies, as per normal, lost the game. Many would say, Malinga was in the team. Moreover, Perera was in form. Others would cite Angelo Mathews. 

Allen played a blinder against SL in 2019 World Cup

But, truth be told, it wasn’t just that; if the Windies came within touching distance of a daunting if not impossible ask of 339, then it was down to two men. 

 The one has today become their captain. You know his name. You love his attacking batting. Nicholas Pooran aka Nicky P being one of them. 

 But, as it often happens with so many precious efforts that somehow end up under appreciated, the other belonged to a man called Fabian Allen. 

 In firing his maiden ODI fifty and what time to cream it as well, Fabian Allen struck a whirlwind 51 that came off just 32 deliveries. 

 To give you a slightly far fetched example, it was an inning that, unlike Najibullah Zadran’s recent Asia Cup blinder, featured in the wrong side of the result. 

 While Zadran’s fiery hitting took his team over the line, Allen’s brave batting that lacked nothing really, failed to do so. 

 That’s when Pooran, who much like Allen, was featuring in his first ever World Cup appearance, belted a 118 off 103. 

 But what is one to do when stalwarts like Gayle and redoubtable talents like Holder fail to lift the team when most needed. 

 Yet despite massive setbacks faced by their Windies at the Riverside ground (England), the duo stitched a spirited stand of 83 for the seventh wicket when the possibility of it seemed unlikely. 

 The reason? Chasing 339, the Windies were already reeling at 199 for six, which is when Fabian Allen joined the party and ensured the hopeless Caribbean fan in the ground began to groove to the music from his cricket bat. 

 Alas, that was over three years back in the day

Allen at the 2019 World Cup

Since then, the very promising Jamaican cricketer hasn’t once touched a fifty in ODI cricket and speaking of his T20 exploits, Fabian Allen is still largely a work-in-progress material. 

 No, he’s not expected to single handedly win matches for the Windies. That’s the job, especially in T20I cricket, that of someone who can swiftly change gears and hold the nerve. 

 Maybe Allen can be mentored to do so for he has the necessary ingredients to succeed on that aspect. 

 Surely, someone who strikes his T20I runs at 136 and not to forget, at 98 in the fifty over game, Allen can do that with relative ease. 

 He’s already conjured 126 of his 267 T20I runs (as on September 2, 2022) courtesy just sixes. 

 So he does have that caribbean power, a phrase that if overused which is so often the case runs the risk of being a terrible cliche. 

 It’s like saying, “Wow, France has Eiffel Tower and India PM Modi; so hardly a doubt about the heights the two nations can achieve!”

 But to take stock of the cricketing picture, Allen, the man who promised so much, hasn’t really delivered the cracking stuff with the consistency that a team defined by exceedingly entertaining but inconsistent talents needs. 

 This is, lest it is forgotten, the West Indies. They can do anything on their day. Normal narrative. Right? 

 But can they deliver this time? Sure they can. We’ve run, time and again, similar narratives that paint the same picture. 

 Exuberance. Power hitting. Long list of muscular hitters that have made power hitting their forte. 

 Though, it’s all fine until this point. Beyond that rests the biggest question of them all, which not all are willing to answer! 

 And what’s that? 

 Will the West Indies go all the way this time around?

Windies haven't done well in T20Is recently

Chances are, sadly speaking, yes and no. They are still, despite being sort of flag bearers of T20 cricket, the same inconsistent lot that often ends up entertaining (which is what we seek in T20s) but not demonstrating effectiveness. That bite. The cleverness. 

 And the blame for that rests so much on the way the sport is still being governed - if at all wisely and soundly- at the highest level. 

 The infra. The necessary financial impetus that developing a game wholeheartedly warrants. All of that. 

 Their talent, mind you, is redoubtable and very capable. We could go all day long on that. 

 Powell’s new and improved version is around. Moreover, now he’s the deputy to Pooran. 

 The likes of Alzarri Joseph, Akeal Hosein, Shamarh Brooks and Kyle Mayers are the talented quartet that can and must account for the goods. 

 For they can. Then there’s no further shortage of power hitting monsters in Odean Smith and Romario Shepherd, both of whom can bloom if they just kept their nerve and guarded against the familiar mediocrity of not being able to handle spin.   

 Pooran himself isn’t bad with the bat, is he? 

 Who else can combine elegance and brutal power so effortlessly as the Trinidadian? 

Pooran will certainly be under pressure

But captaincy wise, leadership quality-wise, there’s still a lot left to be desired. We know that. The series outcomes are an evidence of that. 

 Having said that, there’s also time that we need to give the young man who once was bedridden. The same way he must give to Fabian Allen, who’s returning after a personal tragedy that must have been heartbreaking. 

 He lost his dad

 Now that he’s bravely come back, Fabian Allen may also want to give back something to the joyous Caribbean islands to savour. 

 And nothing could be more useful than using his white ball experience and playing watchfully, the latter maybe not still a Caribbean strong point. 

Also Read: Fabian Allen ready to return to West Indies cricket after turbulent time