Chris Gayle has warned Ricky Ponting to expect “some fury” from Kemar Roach in next week’s third Test in Perth – but the Australian captain is already prepared for the threat from the West Indies newest “pace like fire” tearaway.
“He’ll be a handful in Perth,” Ponting acknowledged after the drawn second Test in Adelaide. “As you can see, every spell he’s bowled, almost every ball he’s bowled, is hovering around 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour).”
“We knew that he was capable of that,” he added. “He’s hit his areas really well. He hasn’t sprayed the ball around too much. He’s bowling well for them at the moment.
“Anyone bowling that sort of pace will trouble any batter, especially later in the game when the bounce gets a bit variable,” Ponting noted.
“That’s when you’re at your most vulnerable against guys who bowl at that sort of pace.”
Writing in his regular column in the Australian press, West Indies captain Gayle recognized that Ponting is a “top-class and experienced player” but claimed that the 21-year-old Roach “really ruffled him and hustled him with sheer pace in Adelaide.”
Ponting has fallen twice to Roach in his three innings in the series, caught by wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin off a perfect outs swiner in the first Test and at mid-wicket from a miscued pull in the first innings of the second.
Gayle said he expected “something extraordinary” from his young fast bowler on the traditionally bouncy pitch in Perth – especially against Ponting.
“Kemar won’t back down against Ricky in Perth and will ask even more questions of the Aussie captain on a pitch which I hear should be very quick and bouncy,” he added.
“I know Ricky is a strong character but so is Kemar and I know he is bursting out of his skin to fire up in Perth. Watch out Ricky!”
Gayle has first-hand experience of Roach’s pace and admitted he doesn’t enjoy facing it.
“Trust me, he has some serious ‘wheels’”, he stated. “I really don’t like facing him in the nets, usually I have to tell him to slow things down so I can actually see the ball!”
Gayle pointed out that Roach maintained his 150 kph pace in the Adelaide Test “even late in spells when he should have been getting a bit tired.”
“I’m no expert on pace but I think he can go a lot quicker,” he speculated.
He said Roach was getting “better and more confident by the minute”. With the chance to now have a rest and put his feet up until the Test that starts on Wednesday, he would come back and “really unleash some fury in Perth.”
For all his menace, Roach has taken only three wickets in the two Tests. It is a statistic team manager Joel Garner has stressed should not be a worry.
“He’s bowling quick and he’s bowling well but we’ve been trying to get him to understand that things don’t always work the way you expect them to,” Garner, 259-wickets member of the formidable fast attack of the 1980s, said yesterday. “He’s just got to be patient. Wickets are bound to come his way and plenty.”
Roach only got his break in the Test team for the home series against Bangladesh last July after the withdrawal of the originally chosen players over their contracts’ dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB.
In spite of the slow, lifeless pitches, he took 13 wickets in the two Tests at an average of 17.61 each, including a 6-48 return in the first innings in Grenada. He followed up with 5-55 in his ODI debut in Dominica.
At five feet, eight inches, he contrasts the stereotype of the towering West Indian fast bowlers of previous eras, such as the 6-8 giant Garner and a host of six-footers from Wes Hall through to Curtly Ambrose.
“Someone who is pretty short at that pace can get the ball to skid onto you pretty quickly off the wicket with not much bounce,” Ponting said. “He’s a handful, there’s no doubt about that. He’s someone who could play a fair bit of Test cricket for them in the future.”
In spite of his limited experience, Roach has had to spearhead the attack in the absence of Fidel Edwards (122 wickets in 43 Tests) and Jerome Taylor (82 wickets in 29 Tests).
All three, together and fit, would comprise as fast and as fearsome a combination as there is in international cricket at present.
For the time being, the West Indies rely on Roach for their fire.
