WI: From boom to bust

THE EDITOR: Matt Roller, assistant editor of ESPNcricinfo, said in January, “the West Indies crashed and burned in the 2021 World Cup. How do they turn their T20I fortunes around?”

Carlos Brathwaite’s four sixes and Marlon Samuels contributions felt like a distant memory when we crashed out of the 2021 World Cup in the Super 12s with four defeats from five games. Kieron Pollard, who was rewarded by retaining his captaincy, said, “We have to bin it and move on” after we were bowled out for 55 runs against England in the opening game.

There were two key questions to address: How could a team containing so many short-form greats bow out in such ignominy? And, of course, what corrective action can be taken? Six or bust is not always the best formula. Teams such as Australia and England have copied that style but they have added the elements of strike rotation and lower dot-ball percentage, while we are stuck in that six mould since 2016.

In their last five and a half years, the West Indies has moved from boom to bust. Pollard retired/resigned from playing for the West Indies earlier this year. How on earth could Pollard have been retained as captain after such a debacle? But these kinds of things seem to be acceptable standards with the West Indies. The WI is quite inflexible, we have been stuck in the style of hit or miss. That is going to win us a game or two, but hardly a tournament.

After all our collective efforts, the ICC rankings are as follows: Test – eight; ODI – ninth; T20 – seventh. The eight teams that have already qualified for the 2022 ICC World Cup are Australia, India, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Former World T20 Champions West Indies and Sri Lanka have to take part in playoffs. The once mighty WI will have to place in the top two in a group that includes Ireland, Zimbabwe and Scotland. Yes, folks, this is indeed the stark reality.

Earlier this week, we beat the United Arab Emirates. The media stated, “Windies silence UAE,” “Windies win one,” and “King, Pooran star.” I mean really! We won by 17 runs but what was worrying was that seven batsmen made five and less runs. And a guy by the name of Junaid Siddique took five wickets for 13 runs. To reiterate the point, the West Indies made 152 for nine.

Oh yes, and our captain Nicholas Pooran shined against the UAE. Finally! Which brings me to my final point. Pooran is struggling for form and cannot seem to get it right. My opinion is that he has never played Test cricket, which is where you get to practise the art and skill of cricket. A hit-or-miss approach is difficult to fix. Correct technique will take you there.

In the months approaching the World Cup batsmen like Virat Kohli, Aaron Finch and Babar Azam were struggling for form in the T20 version. They have all now proven the confidence placed in them by their country and selectors. South Africa’s captain Temba Bavuma is also short of form, but he is a Test cricketer so we will see what will happen.

World Cup cricket in any format is very difficult and the expectations from all countries are very high. Bryan Davis in a recent article stated that “WI must go back to basics.” Several months ago Ian Bishop had touted Shimron Hetmyer and Pooran as our key players for the 2022 T20I. The former has literally missed the “boat” and the latter is fighting for form.

What can we expect then from the World Cup that bowls off in a few days? My personal thoughts are that we would be lucky to qualify out of the group of four and even if we do, we would not make it to the quarter-finals. I hope I am proven wrong in this game of glorious uncertainties.

TERRENCE KALLOO

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