Few positives; many negatives: Takeaways from Aussie T20 series

Thu, Oct 13, '22

2-0 in favour of the hosts. That was the scoreline of the recently concluded Australia-hosted T20I Series against the West Indies as a prelude to the Caribbean team’s participation in this year’s 2022 ICC T20 World Cup Final Qualification Tournament. Even more significantly it left West Indies with an entirely unflattering overall record of 7 wins, 16 losses, and 2 no results from its T20I matches played since last year’s World Cup. Not exactly the type of record that would create any real sense of confidence heading into as big a tournament as the World Cup!

Not surprisingly and as a direct reflection of the 0-2 loss score line there were very few positives to be discerned as takeaways from the West Indies’ performance during the series. By contrast, there were also far too many easily identifiable negatives!

Of the very few readily identifiable positives, by far the biggest would have to be the continuing emergence of Alzarri Joseph as a world-class fast bowler. Joseph had overall returns of 5/38-8 at the end of the two-match Series. Both his average (7.60) and economy rate 4.75 were the very best among all those who bowled at least five overs for either of the two teams. His series tally of five wickets was also second only to Australia’s Mitchell Starc who claimed six victims. As indicated, however, Starc’s 10.0 average and 7.50 economy rate were both much inferior to Joseph’s.

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