Use WI Test team for ODIs

THE EDITOR: With our white-ball specialists consistently failing to deliver, we should use the Test team, with a couple additions, Nicholas Pooran and Shai Hope (both should be in the Test team anyway), to play ODIs (not T20s).

Our Test players, especially the batters, are more technically sound and skilled than those that comprise the one-day team. The current ODI specialist batters' major attribute is their ability to hit the long ball, something that is not a major advantage in the modern game, more so when you don’t have the technique to stick around long enough to play shots.

Meanwhile the all-rounders' lack of effective bowling ability was cruelly exposed in the current tournament by every team we came up against, including those we defeated.

This idea is not novel since several of the successful teams that will be going to the ODI World Cup (most with a wider pool than us to select from) will include their Test stalwarts in their squads. Truth be told, with the current level of our white-ball cricket being lower than a snake’s belly, we have absolutely nothing to lose if we adopt this approach.

I know some will raise the issue of load management, but in this modern era with all the developments in sports science this ought not to be a major problem. When we ruled the roost, our key players were also engaged in the grind of English County cricket with little or no complaints or ill effect.

CLAUDE A JOB

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