England’s test series against the Windies starts on Wednesday, so it’s time to invoke the spirit of Tony Greig and Colin Graves by making some ill thought through predictions. Surely we can’t lose to this ‘mediocre’ lot? Let’s make them, erm, wobble.
However, although over-confidence has proved England’s demise in the Caribbean before – don’t forgot we’ve only ever beaten the Windies away from home once in recent times – there’s good reason to think England can actually back up their supporters’ confidence this time. Why? Because they won’t be using a Kookaburra ball. The Windies have decided to use a Dukes variety that’s likely to stay harder for longer and swing consistently.
What’s more, the pitches aren’t likely to be slow this time either. The WI board has requested pitches with some pace and life. Jimmy and Stu pot will be licking their lips. A few months ago most observers expected England to endure a trial by spin on slow low turners – the type of conditions which completely exposed The Lions. But apparently the WI board would prefer to see some entertaining cricket this time than home victories.
One has to commend the WI board for taking this approach. It might not endear them much to the home supporters – many of whom objected to the appointment of Richard Pybus as coach – but it’s probably the right thing for West Indies cricket (and test cricket in general).
It always feels odd when the Windies triumph on lifeless pitches with crafty spinners. The spirit of West Indies cricket resides in carnival cricket and chin music. And that’s only possible on pitches with copious carry. If the board want the public to fall in love with the sport again then boring attritional cricket isn’t going to cut it. The Windies need to capture imaginations as well as occasional victories.
So how do the teams compare on paper? Although England have quite a few holes they also possess the best individual cricketers in my humble opinion. The Windies would kill for a Joe Root, a Ben Stokes, a Jimmy Anderson, or a even a Jonny Bairstow. And for that reason alone I expect England to win.
The West Indies team includes some very talented players but overall it lacks class. This might sounds harsh but statistically it’s true. England supporters know all about Shai Hope – he scored a brilliant hundred against us in 2017 – but he’s yet to fulfil his potential and still averages less than 30 in tests. It’s a staggering statistic for a player of his ability.
What’s more, the quality of players brought into the Windies squad for this series suggests that their cupboard is still pretty bare. John Campbell barely averages over 30 in first class cricket, and Shamrah Brooks is a journeyman with another very underwhelming record (although his domestic form has improved of late). It’s very hard to see these guys making much of an impact if England bowl well.
This is why the return of Darren Bravo, who does possess a touch of class, is so important for this series. Here’s a man who actually averages 40 in test cricket. He’s a proper test player rather than a young hopeful (or even an ageing hopeful). His presence makes the Windies batting look so much better.
If Bravo can score runs and the admirable Kraigg Brathwaite can knuckle down and occupy the crease for long periods (which he’s done against England before) then the Windies might be able to post some competitive scores. One imagines these guys will be absolutely key. If they can lay a platform then it might give Hope and youngsters like Shimon Hetmyer a chance to shine. Then there’s the keeper Shane Dowrich who can make useful contributions down the order.
The problem, of course, is that England’s bowlers are demonstrably better (not to mention more experienced) than the West Indies’ batsmen. And this is especially true when they’ve got a Duke in their hand. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad looked in good rhythm in the warm-up exercises (I won’t go as far as calling them warm-up ‘games’), and Ben Stokes has always been a wicket-taker. England must be in good shape if they can afford to leave out Chris Woakes, who has always been good when armed with a Duke.
But what about England’s batsmen? Everyone knows they’re far from perfect. However, I do expect them to score enough runs to win the series – if only because we bat so deep. Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel are good bowlers, and I expect them to put our top order under pressure, but they can’t bowl all day. In fact, the bowler I was most worried about pre-series was the spinner Jomel Warrican – the man who tied The Lions in knots. The problem is that the surfaces might not suit him. I guess we’ll see.
The Windies’ other bowling options include Roston Chase, the journeyman all-rounder who rarely tears up trees, and young paceman Alzarri Joseph who is returning from a serious back injury. Joseph has been named in the squad even though nobody knows if he’s fit enough to play (which seems a bit bizarre). If he’s ruled out then the exciting Oshane Thomas, who is reportedly quite rapid, will play instead.
Have these guys got talent? Yes they have. But they’re hardly Starc, Hazlewood or Cummins. One expects that Jason Holder will need to be at his containing best if the Windies want to take 20 wickets. I expect they’ll have their moments (particularly when Keaton Jennings is at the crease, ahem) but they may struggle to land a knock-out blow. One suspects they’ll they’ll get all excited when they reduce us to 100-4, but end up scratching their heads as we somehow cobble together 350 all out. They might even think we’ve deliberately reversed the batting order just to troll them.
Personally I think this should be an interesting series. There’s a decent prize on offer for England as we haven’t won a series in the Windies since 2004, and we’re just about equipped to do the job this time. What’s more, the Windies might be motivated after their 2-0 thrashing in Bangladesh just before Christmas – although one can never tell just how motivated their cricketers really are. There’s always bloody politics to contend with in the Caribbean.
How the Windies respond to Pybus could be the crucial factor here. He wasn’t exactly a popular choice in many quarters. Former captain Darren Sammy and the legendary Desmond Haynes have all criticised his return. As someone who has always admired Stuart Law I think it’s a shame he’s no longer in situ. Law knows English cricket well so he might have given the home team an advantage they no longer possess.
Talking of Aussies many will see this series as preparation for The Ashes. And that’s another reason why I’m encouraged they’ll be using a Duke (albeit not the same one they use in England). A winter in Sri Lanka followed by a series on slow turners in the Caribbean wouldn’t have told us much at all. The prospect of something spicier means we may learn a bit more about the likes of Burns and Buttler.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what Burns can do in this series. The conditions should suit him a little better than they did in Sri Lanka. I’m also hopeful that Jonny Bairstow can emerge as a legitimate No.3 because heaven knows England need one. Although I think he’s more of a natural middle-order player (the ideal six) I do think he’s talented enough to prove me wrong.
It will also be interesting to see whether Jos Buttler bats at 5 or 6, and whether Ben Foakes continues to score runs. If things go wrong for England I worry that Foakes may be the first casualty. After all, some people are bound to question whether England really need three wicket keepers in the XI! The fact that Foakes is by far the best gloveman may become irrelevant if England sense the opportunity to squeeze in another all-rounder.
James Morgan
Pretty much fair comment (though Oshane Thomas was seriously fast in a couple of ODI’s: round the 150k mark). Good to see Darren Bravo back playing test cricket. Bit unfair that he was dropped for calling the WICB chairman (what is it with people called David Cameron?) a “big idiot” when the only word you can argue with is “big”!
I actually think the WI team has a fair amount of potential, and I like Holder as a captain, but we’ll see. They’d certainly be better with Andre Russell in the team. Part of the problem (for older readers like me) is that we remember when West Indies was one of the greatest test dynasties the world has seen.
The WI opening bowlers are the best they’ve had for a while. I can certainly see England being 30/3 after the opening spells (if only because it’s happened so often before).
On an unrelated note, I was reading some of the BBL coverage on Cricinfo, and it seems crowds are much down this year. No one knows if it’s disenchantment with T20, poor batting, or big stars playing elsewhere (Bangladesh), but I thought that might interest you.
I think you can argue with ‘idiot’ about Cameron. Idiots rarely reach top roles, but on the other hand it is quite common for crooks and psychopaths……….not that I would dream of suggesting Cameron is either…….
We’ve mentioned the crowds at the Big Bash games a few days ago. The prevailing view seems to be that crowds have decreased because there are more games now. Overkill. The ECB should take note.
The crowds have probably also decreased due to less over-seas players, fewer close games and a drop in standard. For the first time the season extends past the date when the kids go back to school – that could also have a big impact on crowd sizes.
I’m unsure families who just want fun care about the standard. Probably mor ebecuse 2020 doesn’t get old hat and there are too many games, so it becomes expensive in time and money
It would be such an insult to the ‘keepers union’ to drop Foakes! I he’s worth a wicket or two! Do you know what happened to the much promoted Archer? I thought that he was supposed to be in contention for a test place with his pure pace.
Archer doesn’t qualify for England till after the tour finishes–sometime in March was the last date the ECB or Sussex were giving
To me the key issue will be our bowling attack, which from a seam point of view had an incredibly frustrating time in Sri Lanka, unable to make an impact and bowling very few overs. They should be raring to go and fighting fit and that should be enough to clinch a comfortable victory. Shame about Stone, but with the swing and seam we have available we should still have too much for them.
They did show some spunk over here last time after a disastrous start, so there is hope for a competitive series on their home patch. .Will be interesting to see if they can come up with any surprise packages, which used to happen regularly out there on often underprepared pitches. Hopefully, for the sake of the series, Windies can start well enough to encourage attendances and create some atmosphere. Great fan of Hope, so ‘hopefully’ we can see him make an impact in the form of the game that suits him best. Will be interesting to compare his impact and Root’s as the series progresses.
I’ll watch every ball of every day and every test but I’m not expecting anything but padding out stats and yet more ‘aren’t we great’ and ‘what a great side’ from England
We will learn nothing IMO as a WI will be dire just like SL
The history of test cricket is not peppered with great sides, they are few and far between. All we can do is beat what’s put in front of us. I am sure the England management and players are aware they still have a lot to prove before they can be compared with the likes of Waugh’s Aussies or Llloyd’s Windies. All we can do is endeavour to get back to the top of the world rankings, which we all know makes us no more at present than the best of an ordinary bunch. However it is still no mean achievement to win a series away from home. We all know winning is a habit and if we can keep that going then it bodes well for a good summer.
For the first time in my living memory we have international teams in Cricket, Soccer and Rugby, our 3 main team sports, who are a threat to anyone around. So I guess we must be doing something right.
A couple of commonly repeated narratives at the start of this tour are really bugging me:
1) Winning this series will be a significant achievement because England haven’t won the last two. Weirdly enough, England aren’t the only team in the world so let’s look at how WI have done at home this decade against all opposition. By my reckoning they’ve had 14 home series. WI have won four of them – against Bangladesh twice, Zimbabwe and NZ. They’ve drawn three – against P, SL and of course England in 2014. They’ve lost seven – against India twice, Australia twice, SA, NZ and P. This makes them, according to Nasser Hussain, “a difficult proposition”.
In other words, the one major team they’ve beaten was NZ in 2012 (Bangladesh are a major side at home but not yet away). WI’s runs were scored by Gayle, Samuels and Chanderpaul – all of course now departed and their replacements not of their standard. Their key bowler was Narine – before his action was “remodelled”. NZ were a shambles – McCullum wasn’t yet captain and Boult/Southee missed the First Test.
2) England mostly – or only – failed to win in 2014 because Colin Graves called WI “mediocre”. No other aspect of that tour had anything to do with it, certainly not any decisions made by the Moores/Cook leadership team. The beserk decision to use Trott as an opener had nothing to do with it. Refusing to select Rashid, even on a bunsen in Bridgetown, and selecting a seamer like Jordan instead was just peachy. Those are just the two most egregous examples. But no, it was just that Colin Graves…
(FTR Graves’ comment was crassly timed but it’s pretty factually accurate and he didn’t take a single wicket, score a run or hold a catch in the series. It’s a nonsense the importance that was attached to it – especially by a media who’d spent the previous few years giving a free pass to Graves’ predecessor).
Agreed. I’m sure that Graves’s comment helped to motivate the Windies but that’s not the reason England played poorly. My overriding memory of that series is Gary Ballance scoring precisely no runs whilst occupying the crease terribly & looking like he might get out any delivery. That might have been the last test (only) but that Ballance effort sticks in my mind because it seemed to represent how England were going precisely nowhere under Peter Moores. Who’d have thought he’d turn out to be a terrible reappointment? ;-)
Jennings surely has to go – in his last 16 first class innings he has scored over 50 only twice (51 & 146) and over 30 only 6 times and his test match average is 26.62. If Jennings plays Bairstow is likely to be in after a few balls, so why not give him the job of opener?
And most pertinently, his big weakness is against quick bowling – which seems bizarre for an opener. I do wonder if he is batting in the wrong position in the order (whether for Engalnd or county). Could he be developed as a 4 or 5?
A tiny taste of what facing WI used to be like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ah524EPXxo
That’s a truly great batsman he’s doing that too. Bet he wished the umpire had given that LBW and didn’t get the Big Bird riled up!
Awesome. I recognize Frank Tyson’s voice but who was the guy with the English accent commentating when Chappell gets out? (I thought at first it was Trueman but I’m not quite sure)
Nice to have a bit of England Test cricket again, but to be honest I’m more looking forward to the start of the Championship season with Surrey defending the title. I don’t have or want Sky and wouldn’t listen to Talk Sport or TMS anymore. You can get the coverage on a number of iffy web sites but it’s not very good. I think the Windies at home with a couple of quick who are faster than us will do well. England should do ok, but history doesn’t suggest that.
WI batted with application and actually tried to occupy the crease which was really good to see.. sadly they are crap so lost a clump of cheap wickets. Englsnd to win easily by an innings
I can’t even be bothered to slate Curran or moeen..