A pace trial for WI Down Under

THE EDITOR: The West Indies as Caribbean people and as cricketing nation are surely going to face a trial by pace that we cannot afford to fail in our Test series Down Under now underway.

Our team of Caribbean cricketers will be hoping to give their beloved manager Phil Simmons a respectable sendoff in his last tour of duty for the men in maroon after a saddening performance in his second stint in charge of the WI and can have no doubts that they are going to face the fight of their lives in a stern contest in a hostile environment.

The Aussies are the best in the world for very good reason. Star fast bowler Mitchell Starc has a huge chip on his proud shoulders after having not featured in the recent T20 International World Cup for Australia and has not minced his words in letting the whole cricketing world now know that he has a point to prove to his bosses at Cricket Australia.

He can be expected to lead a lethal pace attack vs the West Indies at Perth that is going to thrive on a pitch that is very likely going to have plenty pace, bounce, sideways movement and swing both ways for the seamers, with the groundsmen leaving a bit of grass on it to further encourage the Aussie pacers.

The WI batters are therefore going to have to weather a fast and fearsome storm of classic Aussie fast bowling early in their innings. They are going to have to dig in and graft out determined and long innings in the middle to score runs since Starc and his fellow seamers will be out to take everything from the WI in terms of wickets and give us nothing in terms of runs on the board.

The best bit of encouragement for we the Caribbean cricket fanatics comes from the fact that pound for pound the WI may very well have a better pace battery than Australia with the likes of Kemar Roach, Jason Holder, Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph raring to hunt Aussie wickets to add to their already very impressive collection of Test scalps.

However, with the only tried, tested and proven batter over a decently long period of time in the middle against fearsome pace attacks for the WI being captain Kraigg Braithwaite, and nobody in our entire dugout averaging over 50 runs, which is the benchmark statistic for a Test match batter worth his salt, the WI is going to need a lot of luck to see off Simmons without his head being bowed in shame.

This is my simple opinion of what a more reasonable WI Test cricket team should look like: Kraigg Braithwaite, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kavem Hodge, Shimron Hetmyer, Jermaine Blackwood, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, Rahkeem Cornwall, Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales.

The WI's Test cricket A team may look like this: Chandrapaul Hemraj, Leonardo Julien, Brandon King, Nkurmah Bonner, Kyle Mayers, Alick Athenaze, Joshua Da Silva, Joshua James, Gukadesh Mootie, Marquinho Mindley, Chemar Holder.

FITZROY OTHELLO

Princes Town

Editor’s note: This letter was written before the Test match now being played at Perth.