International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 title holders, West Indies, will continue their build up to their title defence with a five-match series against Australia from Friday.
The series will serve as a gauge for the two-time champions who have identified an 18-man provisional squad that has been put to the test already just recently against South Africa where they lost 3-2.
West Indies have only won three of their last 12 series with two wins coming against Sri Lanka and one against Bangladesh. In fact, the Maroon boys last had a series win over a top-ranked team in 2017 when they beat England and India in one-off matches.
But with four wins in their last five clashes between the two sides and a second-string Australia, West Indies will start with some amount of confidence.
Head coach, Phil Simmons has been adamant about the batting performance and at the end of the South Africa series called for the batsmen to be “a bit smarter” and contextualize the stages and positions of the game.
While he was stern on their lacklustre form in the middle phase, he had commended their continued capitalization of the powerplay.
Looking at the top order, Evin Lewis was the most successful and earned the recognition as the only West Indian batsman in the top 10 for the format.
While Lendl Simmons has been one of the more productive batsman, his recent form has shown a bit of ring rust and he lacks the consistency he had five years ago.
In a team packed with power hitters and the opening spot taken, it would be interesting to see if the management would persist with the aging Chris Gayle.
At 41 years, his performance has dwindled since 2018 where he scored 18 runs in three innings. The following year it was 20 runs in two innings while this year in his seven innings he has 85 runs with a strike rate of 101.
However, his statistics against Australia is one of the best against international teams. In eight matches, Gayle has four half centuries and a strike rate of 159.8 and an average of 42.7. His average is the highest against any team while his strike rate is only bettered when playing against South Africa.
Looking further down the order, Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran have both churned out uninspiring performances that have been eclipsed by the high expectations cricket pundits had predicted for them given their exploits on the T20 circuit.
Hetmyer’s averages an abysmal 18 in the format and his strike rate of 115 fails to offer any evidence that the talented left-hander has been a world beater.
Hetmyer’s fellow left-hander and vice-captain of the side, Pooran is slightly better statistically, averaging 19 and striking at 118.4 but again has not converted domestic exploits to the international arena.
Andre Russell and captain, Kieron Pollard have done the job required on several occasions at the back end of the innings and with the head coach preaching safe navigation through the middle phase, his rationale rests on a back end explosion by the power hitting duo and company. Russell is yet to score a half century but his strike rate of 151 is among the best in the side while Pollard’s ability to singlehandedly change the course of an innings makes for a dangerous combination.
Pollard’s consistency has been integral to West Indies’ batting scoring in excess of 150 repeatedly with strike rates of 204 in 2020 and 156 this year.
It is unclear if Fabian Allen is fit for the series having suffered a shoulder injury that ruled him out of the last match against South Africa and could be a peg in the spoke of the Caribbean unit both with the ball and bat.
The bowling department has been the distinguishing aspect of West Indies cricket for the last few years, even recently being complimented by Coach Simmons after the South Africa series.
While veteran, Dwayne Bravo ended with the most wickets in the series, it was the performance of left-arm quick, Obed McCoy that grabbed the attention. His nine wickets in the series resulted in the head coach saying he has continuously progressed since the last series.
The bench strength is also imposing with the likes of Fidel Edwards, Jason Holder, Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell among the ranks.
Looking at the spin department, Allen’s left-arm orthodox provides a useful option among the seam-heavy all-rounder centric unit. But with his injury, it could pave the way for another outing for left-arm spinner, Akeal Hosein. Off-spinner, Kevin Sinclair has progressed nicely among newbies in the side, picking up four wickets in his first six matches while leg-spinner, Hayden Walsh Jnr, is also in contention but has not been at his best in recent times.
Pollard had already revealed that everyone will get a chance at some point but the objective is to produce the best XI on the day.
West Indies Squad: Kieron Pollard (C), Nicholas Pooran (VC), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Obed McCoy, Evin Lewis, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr.
