A reminder of how far Windies have fallen
Mon, Oct 15, '18
"chances went down and a deluge of bitty misfields littered the passage of play"
For all the thousands of players across the world, there are still few batsmen who arrive in the Test arena termed a prodigy. Many have huge expectation on them but few are expected, as is Prithvi Shaw, to become the Little Master's actual replacement. India's tour to Australia later this year, scene of some of Tendulkar's finest knocks, will give us a mouthwatering taste of whether he really is the true heir.
Nothing can be taken away from Shaw's breathtaking performances in his debut series against the West Indies, but it is worth recalling the fate of another of these rare prodigies to highlight the plight of the Caribbean's current Test side. Back in 1991, Graeme Hick made his debut against the same opposition and, after stellar efforts in county cricket, had to cope with similar levels of expectation, not least as his adopted nation at the time were already in the doldrums.
Zimbabwe-born Hick had six years on Shaw when he took his Test bow, having had to wait seven years to qualify for England. He also had 57 First Class tons to his name by the time he got to the middle at Headingley. Sadly, once there, he found Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and Patrick Paterson waiting for him and ended the series with an average of 10.
In the first Test at Rajkot, Shaw walked out to face Shannon Gabriel, Keemo Paul, Sherman Lewis and Devendra Bishoo and ended his own debut series with an average of 118.5. This is not to demean the West Indies' patchwork attack, but how Hick must have wished for this velour welcome mat laid out at the start of his own career rather than the bear pit into which he was thrown.
