‘A breath of fresh air’

JOSHUA Da Silva’s half-centurion (57) knock on debut in the second innings of the second Test against the Black Caps serves as one of the rare highlights arising out the regional team’s dismal performance following their recent tour of New Zealand.

The 22-year old was selected as a reserve player for the travelling West Indies (WI) team and was called up as a replacement wicketkeeper for the second Test match – which bowled off on Friday – as first-choice custodian Shane Dowrich returned to the Caribbean for personal reasons.

Although the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) wicketkeeper/batman was unable to make a lasting impression during his first innings knock, scoring three runs, he made amends in the second by partnering with skipper Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph to lead a solid bottom-order stance.

Sent in to bat in the first innings of the second Test, the hosts were dismissed for 460. In response, a shaky WI batting lineup whittled away for just 131 with Jermain Blackwood (69) top scoring and John Campbell and Shamarh Brooks the only other two cricketers to achieve double figures, getting 14 runs each.

The Black Caps enforced the follow on but the WI could only muster up 317 in response, with the hosts sealing a comfortable victory by an innings and 12 runs, and by extension, a 2-0 Test series sweep of the men in maroon.

WI’s second innings, however, saw a revitalised performance from most of the batsmen as Campbell (69), Holder (61), Da Silva (57) and Brooks (36) showed resistance.

Unimpressed by the squad’s general showing, former West Indies and TT Red Force manager Omar Khan was still in high praise of Da Silva’s Test debut performance.

“I have known Joshua playing for Queen’s Park, coming through the ranks and watching him play cricket. He has that desire to do well. He has a good work ethic. He always seems to have a good head on his shoulders and knows exactly what is required.

“He can adjust to situations and uses his brain to decipher situations and those are the things that we require in our present-day cricket,” said Khan.

The ex-national manager also highlighted that even the New Zealand commentators were impressed with the player’s technique and credited the youngster for his debut display.

Da Silva’s performance, Khan thinks, serves as a stepping stone for the player and team as they usher in new blood and much-needed depth into the struggling Test squad.

“People who can apply a bit of brains and common sense when playing cricket. He has displayed that. Even the commentators were saying that he has plenty of time to play shots, looked compact and well-organised as a batsman.

“He’s definitely a breath of fresh air and this augurs well for us for Test cricket and possibly One-Day Internationals,” Khan said.

Khan, however, believes that much work needs to be done on the team’s mental fortitude heading into big matches, particularly during the pandemic.

According to him, new norms such as competing and training in a bio-secure environment must now become a benchmark for players heading on tour.

These new elements may also serve as additional challenges to athletes who are yet to acclimatise the rapidly changing sporting world.

He added, “We have to try to continue to work on our players’ mental aspect. As I said before, the cricket today is not what it used to be. This has become that our cricketers must be able to adjust to and be mentally strong to handle the pressures of the game.

“It’s something that we should spend a lot of time on educating our players on what is expected of them as professionals during the pandemic. They have to get mentally prepared for challenging situations like these.”

In response to the team’s overall performance, Khan was disappointed but pleased to see bowlers like Alzarri Joseph stepping up and achieving runs from the bat. He scored 24 in the second innings.

But Khan remains unimpressed and called on the regional squad to amplify their energy heading into a new competitive year.

“It was a very poor display. We didn’t show that we wanted to be in the fight. We didn’t show we were up to it. We just went through the motions day after day, you would see glimpses of good performances but consistently.

Test cricket is six to eight hours per day. If we have to do well you have to have that fighting spirit and intensity to be able to stick it and fight it out.”