West Indies bowler Kemar Roach: St Lucia wicket will benefit us on future tours

WEST Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach said the bouncy wicket at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia will benefit West Indies in the long run as the wicket will help the players prepare for overseas tours.

The West Indies players were greeted in St Lucia with a wicket conducive for fast bowling as it produced swing and bounce in the opening Test match against South Africa, which ended on Saturday.

The Windies batsmen struggled to adjust to unfamiliar conditions as most wickets in the Caribbean are slow that generate little bounce.

West Indies were dismissed for 97 in the first innings and 162 in the second innings and as a result, fell to a heavy defeat by an innings and 63 runs in three days.

The South Africa fast-bowling trio of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi joined forces to grab 18 of the 20 wickets for their team in the first Test match.

Roach, speaking to journalists on Zoom on Wednesday, said, “The pitch in St Lucia it bounced a lot more than I have seen in a while. It reminds me of a wicket probably in Australia or South Africa. It is about us adapting, just about us taking the challenge and obviously try to be as positive as we can.

“I think these pitches will benefit us in the long run especially if we go to overseas tours…like South Africa, like Australia where the ball bounces a lot more. We will not be unfamiliar when we do go to those countries, so I think it is good to have a wicket like this in the Caribbean where we can prepare ourselves for those overseas tours.”

Before the massive defeat against South Africa the West Indies Test team played unbeaten over four matches in 2021.

At the start of the year, West Indies defeated Bangladesh 2-0 in a two-match series in Bangladesh, before returning to the Caribbean for a two-match series against Sri Lanka in Antigua. That series ended in a 0-0 draw.

Roach is not concerned about the recent form. “The dressing room is pretty good, relaxed. We have had a good year of Test cricket. One match does not make us a bad team so it is just about us remaining positive, trust our process and just gain some confidence in the second Test match and take it from there.”

Roach thinks the West Indies fast bowling attack has the quality to match the ability of the South African pacers.

In the opening match, West Indies chose the bowling trio of Roach, Jason Holder and debutant Jayden Seales. Experienced fast bowler Shannon Gabriel is injured and missed the first Test.

“(There is) enough experience in the team, enough experience in the dressing room. Myself, Jason, hopefully we could have Shannon around. I thought Jayden has showed great maturity (and) Alzarri (Joseph) is still in among the fray as well. Once we get our plans right, once we are patient and we execute as well as we have been doing over the past two years I don’t see why we can’t out bowl the South Africa team.”

The second and final Test match between West Indies and South Africa bowls off on Friday in St Lucia.