I imagine that supporting the West Indies is a bit like being a Nottingham Forest fan. Your team used to be the best in the business, playing entertaining stuff that had neutrals purring, but humiliation is now as frequent and predictable as digs at the coalition government on BBC’s Question Time.
And just when you think the Windies might be on the verge of a revival, they capitulate like lemmings at a cliff jumping party; which is probably what their fans will be organising too after their latest embarrassment – this time at the hands of the England Lions.
In yesterday’s warm up match the Windies put on a decent show. They batted with determination and even managed to set the Lions a tricky run chase of just under 200. However, their attempts to defend that score today were shocking. It wasn’t just inept; it was totally lacking heart.
Sometimes I wonder whether West Indian players can pat their heads and rub their stomachs at the same time. They certainly can’t bat well and bowl well in the same match. Getting two things right simultaneously seems beyond them.
To put their ten wicket defeat in perspective, the man who did the damage for the Lions today was little Joe Root – a young guy who had previously made just one first class hundred in his career. Despite being highly rated, Root has continuously struggled to live up to the hype. He finds county bowlers a handful most of the time (averaging a paltry 33 before this match), yet he took one look at the Windies attack and suddenly morphed into Len Hutton.
The obvious point is this: if the Lions can beat the West Indies by ten wickets, what will the senior England team do to them? Remember, a couple of months ago Strauss’s men bowled the Lions out for peanuts and had to set themselves an artificial score to chase; it was the only way they could get some meaningful batting practice. If the Windies are to avoid humiliation in the first test, they’ll have to improve fast. Scratch that. They’ll have to improve super fast.
The Windies also suffered some bad news today when Kemar Roach, their best bowler, was unable to take the field. He injured his hand batting and must now be an injury doubt for the first test. It never rains, it pours – how apt when we’ve had the wettest April and May in living memory.
While the West Indies final XI for the first test is now in doubt, the England selectors appear to have settled on the make-up of their side. The only real question before today was who the sixth specialist batsman would be. With Ravi Bopara nursing an injury, Jonny Bairstow has been given the nod.
It will be interesting to see how Bairstow does. He’s obviously a very talented lad and he deserves his call up simply because he’s scored more runs than his nearest rivals; Alex Hales has had a very disappointing season thus far, whilst James Taylor’s first innings ton for the Lions was his first meaningful innings for some time. Then again, England could probably field ten men and still beat the Windies if current form is anything to go by.
James Morgan
Bairstow probably deserves his chance, although I’m not convinced he’s quite ready yet. There are some genuinely outstanding young batting talents coming through at the moment (Taylor, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Hales etc), but they’re all at the same stage of their development. Meanwhile, Morgan continues to keep the bench warm at the IPL………..
PS McCleish OUT!
In fairness to the Windies, most of the bowling came from players who don’t normally bowl. It wasn’t even a county strength attack. It wasn’t surprising they knocked off the runs so easily.
Root and carberry still survived the opening bursts by rampaul and Fidel Edwards, who opened the bowling in the Windies last test. Meanwhile shillingford, who was a key man against Australia recently, bowled a lot of overs.