@Dukes

Tevin Imlach was selected to play the 2 test matches in Pakistan for the obvious reason that he is a better wicketkeeper than DaSilva ESPECIALLY up at the wicket to spinners PARTICULARLY when the ball is TURNING SQUARE and your SPINNERS would be bowling the majority of the overs. 

What is so difficult to understand???

The only West Indian wicketkeeper to average more than 30 with the bat in the last 40 years was Dujon and he averaged 31.They all averaged between 18 and 25 with Jacobs averaging 28.

The current WI top 6 all average under 30 except Greaves due to his unbeaten 202.Incidentally Greaves has 3 scores in test cricket above 50 and all three are unbeaten.

Hodge comes in for Athanze and the former averages24.63 and the latter 23.68 while DaSilva averages 24.76.

If a WI selector is looking at the batting to determine who his wicketkeeper will be then he is a JACKASS because none of them will ever make enough runs to make up for dropping catches.

Maybe a better angle for your argument would be to compare the test batting average of WI wicketkeepers post Dujon, to the test batting averages of wicketkeepers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.

Those are the test playing nations that are closest to West Indies in performance and ranking.

The reality is in the modern test game, a specialist keeper who doesn’t contribute with the bat has gone the way of the dodo bird.

BTW….we have different recollections regarding why Imlach replaced DaSilva in Pakistan.

As I recall, DaSilva was dropped because he wasn’t making enough runs. Not because of a deficiency in his wicketkeeping.

We all clearly saw after Imlach’s performances in Pakistan that he was the superior keeper to DaSilva by some distance.

By the same token, it could be argued that DaSilva is much the superior batsman since TO DATE, Imlach averages about half of DaSilva’s test batting average

Earning a spot doesn't count for 27 worshippers...

Nothing wrong if someone performed and forced their way into the squad... if they fail at the international level then you rightfully drop them. At least you could say you used a basis to select the player.

But 27 lead battylicker prefers the passport approach... or de one where fellow worshippers are hand picked by their god.

@anthonyp

But at least they could try and be fair, but insular BLs cannot be rational, so you wasting your time.

@imusic

very well argued. However, the point for me is that Imlach and Silva had very similar first class figures this year. Imlach has failed at test level to date and so logically one would expect that Silva may not have done much better. Mhoammed and Hamilton are, like Silva, not even in the mix. The question therefore is that if FC performance is irrelevant to test picks, what is??

@voiceofreason

and then, when a sub-caliber keeper drops a few chances, everybody will complain about that...

fix the top six - THEY are the run scorers (or should be!), keepers keep, anything from seven onwards in your test XI, batting is a bonus.

@PalsofMine

There is such a glaring need for more A team cricket. The West Indies need to be playing much more of that level as it is the true stepping stone to international cricket.

@imusic

LET US KEEP IT REAL

1.Rather than deal with hypotheticals we must deal with reality.We have a pool of West Indian batsmen who can not average 30 in test cricket.Most of them were averaging between 20 and 25 and you would drop your wicketkeeper because he is averaging 24?

2.You would then pick a wicketkeeper for his batting who had never played test cricket before and averages 32 in first class cricket while DaSilva has a superior first class record and has a test century is dropped?

3.If you are satisfied with DaSilva's keeping, and your replacement is doing 50% worse than DaSilva then the logical thing to do is to return to DaSilva without delay.

Lemme ask you this.If you feel that DaSilva's keeping was satisfactory then how is Imlach a superior keeper "BY SOME DISTANCE"

It is ILLOGICAL to me to drop a wicketkeeper because of his batting when 1.He is doing as well or better than some of the batsmen and 2.you replace him with someone who has an inferior batting record and 3.We have not had a wicketkeeper who has averaged 30 for more than 3 decades

I would take Josh DaSilva everyday of the week and twice on Sundays over Imlach. Josh is a much better batsman.

I do not see how Imlach being a "better keeper" according to some has helped us in any of the games he played. West Indies still lost and sometimes well within three days.

So forgive me if I wanna win by any means necessary.

Even Carey of Australia has improved , Smith of England, Pant of India, and the Sri Lankan keeper all play major roles in their respective teams batting lineup.

As of now West indies has the longest tail in test cricket and the weakest at that.

Currently Chase and Imlach are the weakest links in this batting lineup and they must be replaced.

Imlach stays. Unuh cud a bex til...

@pariaman

The thing is, we so desparate, one decent season and we selecting. Then they fail a few and discarded. Criteria should be, show me regional performance over 3 seasons, then we invest.

@voiceofreason

Hamilton with a 28odd FC average was lucky to get a look.

@Dukes

It is ILLOGICAL to me to drop a wicketkeeper because of his batting when 1.He is doing as well or better than some of the batsmen and 2.you replace him with someone who has an inferior batting record and 3.We have not had a wicketkeeper who has averaged 30 for more than 3 decades

You would have to pick that up with Darren Sammy and before him, Andre Coley.

BTW….I read somewhere that DaSilva has the best catches per innings ratio of all WI keepers and is in the top 10 in that category all time in the history of cricket.

Point is, while Imlach is a better keeper than DaSilva IMO, DaSilva did not cost WI matches during his tenure.

And just to be even clearer, I’m not advocating for DaSilva. As far as I’m concerned as long as this current administration & management team temains in charge, his West Indies playing career is OVER.