Facing realities

1. Any test team ranked #1-6 in the world would have salivated at the chance of having Australia in the position where they just need to chase 277 for victory with 2 days left. For West Indies, it was a lost cause once the score went above 150.
2. We cannot have any expectations for a team when our highest ranked test batsman is #56 and is averaging 3 in the series
3. Our bowling is not world class. The only bowler we have in the top 30 is Seales. We have decent bowling but they are not quite world class as yet.
4. There is no reason not to chop and change batsmen who are averaging no more than 25 in test cricket. They will never take you anywhere. Better give other batsmen a chance. Nos. 1-6 should be told that your place is not guaranteed beyond the first 2 tests in any series unless you can average over 35 in those 4 innings. We need to set some kind of standard beyond potential.
5. For every decade from 1930s to 2010, we had at least one great batsman, from Headley to Lara. After that, nothing. From 2010 we have not produced one international class batsman. Bravo, the last one, started playing in 2009 I believe. It is not the lack of county cricket or the poor FC season. Lara, Chanders, Sarwan, Gayle all made their test debuts without playing county cricket and adapted to test cricket. It is just that the talent pool has dried up.

In reply to PalsofMine

Dnt agree that any team ranked 1-6 would have "salivated" at the prospect of chasing 277 on that pitch against that attack irrespective of how much time they had to do it.....also dnt agree that the talent has dried up ...Windies players pound for pound are as talented as any country even given the fact that collectively they have a much smaller pool to choose from than other countries with larger populations.....if some of our best was allowed to play in any of the top countries regional cricket on better surfaces are you telling me they wouldn't improve??....for eg the short spell Jayden Seales had with Sussex was that to the detriment or benefit to him???

In reply to CCW

Seales is ranked NO. 9 in the world. Other teams would have salivated because they would have considered they had a chance. Not necesarily that they would definitely win but that that total game them a chance to win. Everyone in the West Indies knew that we could never win once the total to chase crossed 150. That is a case of talent drying up. Just look also at our batting performances at the A team level both here and on tour.

In reply to PalsofMine



When I looked at some of the recent red ball games in the domestic tournament I didn't see one batter who looked "Test class".

I know Anderson, Da Silva, Imlach and some others made runs but to my eyes there were obvious technical and temperamental issues with all those players. Anderson plays and misses a lot - on flat pitches. I can't see him surviving against guys like Cummins and Starc on fast seaming pitches. Da Silva looks very good technically but throws it away after getting a start far too often. Imlach also has (to my eyes) issues with temperament and shot selection. Same with Athanaze.

Before the advent of lickit cricket it used to be drilled into young batters to go out there and "bat all day". Sadly, I don't think any batter in the West Indies is capable of batting all day in a Test Match - even on flat pitch.

And yes, the answer to many of these issues is absolutely more red ball cricket. It's absurd to think that a batter can develop the technical aptitude and mental fortitude to play Test cricket by playing a format which requires them to swing for the hills from ball one.

In reply to SnoopDog


yip. but i think, given a solid top 3,they can do well. remember they all come in at 50-3,50-4, 45-5 etc. that kind of chaos can't be good for a developing player. ironically, the opener who is in great part responsible is still there when all the guys you mentioned are either out or have not been selected

In reply to Jumpstart

That is a solid point. Our batting fortunes are likely to improve if we could find openers who are capable of putting at least 50 on the board and/or batting off 20 overs on a regular basis.

In reply to Jumpstart

yep no argument with that....as they use to say an openers job is to tek the shine off the ball ....but evidently now it seems the tail enders have taken over that roll

i was hoping that Cooper and Evelyn would have been given a chance in the A series

In reply to PalsofMine

You are spot on kind Sir. It is very difficult if not impossible to compete at this level without one quality test batsman. We are clutching at straws if we think Dasilva and the likes are going to be game changers. We can save time and energy by putting the names in a hat and play whoever comes up. The talent pool in simply not up to snuff...

In reply to PalsofMine



Shamar Joseph is arguably already a top 20 bowler. Last year, I cautioned against hasty expectations, but after 10 Tests and 43 wickets at 24 a piece, he's definitely made a mark. The formula for calculating rankings is weighted against new players so a truer picture will emerge the longer he plays, assuming he does.

In reply to KTom

I agree that players have to move up the list so a newer player takes a while to get there. If Shamar is able to continue bowling like this, he will definitely be a top 10 bowler. I am really looking forward to seeing him in New Zealand. If he and Seales are fit and bowl their best, we can give as good as we have been getting from them over the past few tours.

Was just looking at an interesting article on conversion rate of the top batsmen. Both Root and Williamson, two of top batsmen get a century in under every 6 innings. This really puts our batting in perspective where we played 11 tests in 2024 I believe, x top 6 x 2 innings per test = 132 innings and collectively scored 2 centuries or a conversion rate of century per 66 innings. That makes each of our top order on average less than 1/10th the batsman of a Root or Williamson. Nuff said.

Our bowling attack has been solid in the first two test. Was it the pitch? maybe, maybe not, but they were solid against the world #1 test cricket team. We now need a complimentary batting attack. Might be difficult with the fast money of lickit/cricket siphoning away some top talent.