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West Indies made the bold decision to travel to a nation with one of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the world, for which the ECB says it will be eternally grateful. By the end of the tour, the rigors of spending so long away from home in complete isolation was beginning to tell and a series that began so brightly for the visitors became beset by physical and mental fatigue. Here are the marks out of ten:

7

Jermaine Blackwood (211 runs at 35.16)
The most improved player for West Indies. Blackwood was the only one who came closest to raising his bat to mark a Test century, missing the landmark by five runs having set up the victory in Southampton. Naturally aggressive, Blackwood learned on the job to not get excited having engaged erroneously with Ben Stokes and losing his head on the penultimate afternoon in the second Test. Finished the tour as Windies' top run-scorer.

Roston Chase (10 wickets at 34.00, 157 runs at 28.16)
Player of the Series mainly for his bowling, but in the Southampton victory, Chase played a significant hand with the bat, providing semblance to the middle order when England were threatening to regain control. Got a five-for in the second Test. His aim was to score a Test century in England, but he was exposed playing back to deliveries coming in. Finished the series caught napping and was run-out.

Full Story

Blackwood only picked up from where he left off, before he was unfairly discarded by previous crony selectors, trying to destroy the young cricketer’s career. Now they are surprised that he has the highest accumulated total in the series? No surprises here for me, the facts are that after two years in cricket wilderness, the man still has a higher test average than many players who were persisted with by said crony selectors!!

Blackwood, Holder, Chase, Gabriel, Roach, and Brooks kept WI competitive.

In reply to Slipfeeler

Not enough runs by the lot of them

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com
Some report card!

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Is this some sort of pity being heaped on the WI players? Where is the England "report card" and how do the WI players compare?

I refuse to read the article if that is a 7!!!

In reply to Kay

I guess they were being graded on a curve!

In 2017, on our last tour to England, Blackwood finished third in both aggregate and average to Hope and Brathwaite. He was again out of the team after a few failures, while Hope and Brathwaite keep chugging along undisturbed, having done nothing of note in test cricket since then.

Some Players Are More Equal than Others

In reply to Kay

Read the rest to learn why that is a 7. Without that '7'...Whitewash.

PS: His average was 40 before the final test.

In reply to rhatid

Remember the one about the one-eyed man living in the blind-eye country?
(in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king)