Tony Gray: Windies must be wary of hungry English pacers

FORMER West Indies fast bowler Tony Gray believes the experienced English fast bowling pair of Stuart Broad and James Anderson will be missed, but the other pacers will be hungry to cement a spot on the England Test team.

West Indies and England will begin a three-match Test series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Tuesday, at 10 am.

Anderson and Broad are among eight English players overlooked for the series who featured in the recent Ashes series. Australia rolled over England 4-0 in the five-match Test series, which ended in January.

Anderson, 39, has taken 640 wickets in 169 Test matches.

Broad, 35, has equally impressive statistics grabbing 537 wickets in 152 matches.

Fast bowler Kemar Roach, who will lead the West Indies pace attack, said the regional team will benefit from Broad and Anderson missing.

Roach said “it’s a slight advantage for us.”

However, Roach said the other fast bowlers in the England squad cannot be taken lightly.

Chris Woakes, Saqib Mahmood, Mark Wood, Craig Overton, Matthew Fisher and Ollie Robinson are the England fast bowlers.

Robinson has been ruled out of the first Test because of a back spasm. Mahmood and Fisher are uncapped and aiming to make a mark in the Caribbean.

The experienced pair of Roach and Jason Holder will lead the Windies bowling attack as Shannon Gabriel is suffering with a hamstring injury and is unavailable for the first Test.

Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales and uncapped Anderson Phillip are the other fast bowlers in the West Indies team.

Gray believes the quality of Broad and Anderson will be missed, along with their ability to assess match situations.

“Besides being on the field with that level of experience that will be missing, the level of experience will also be missing in the think room.”

The former Windies fast bowler says the absence of Broad and Anderson will motivate other English fast bowlers to deliver.

“You must not be complacent (as a Windies batsman) because when young fast bowlers are hungry and they want to make a name for themselves and cement themselves on the English team then they are going to come with everything possible…highly motivated fast bowlers will compensate for the fact that they don’t have that real deep experience.”

Anderson and Broad are skilful bowlers utilizing swing to outsmart batsmen.

“That experience cannot be filled overnight,” Gray said.

Wood with his pace and experience can prove to be the difference, according to Gray.

He said batsmen must get into position quickly to play their shots.

“Our batsmen must be conscious that technical competence against guys who are that fast is not just about body position or bat position or technique, it’s about how fast you move too.”

Speaking about what he would like to see from the Windies fast bowlers, Gray said, “He (Joseph) needs to be a bit more fuller in length…I think that Alzarri Joseph once he bowls a fuller length consistently and don’t try to bowl short balls too much then he is a much better bowler.

“Roach (is) obviously very skilled, lethal against the left-handers. Jason Holder (will be a threat) because of his consistency and because of his movement especially into the right-handers and sometimes he can move the ball away from the right-handers.”

Phillip is an attacking bowler, but in international cricket Gray said he must be more patient in grabbing wickets.

Seales can bowl at 90 miles per hour, but cannot bowl at that pace consistently yet. Gray believes in Seales’s talent.