Cricket West Indies (CWI) highly commendable extension of this year’s Regional 4Day Championship, the Inaugural Headley Weeks Tri Series, gets underway from April 19 – May 6 at Antigua’s Coolidge Cricket Ground. The Series will involve CWI Senior Men’s Selection Teams, respectively named in honour of George Headley and Sir Everton Weekes, competing against each other and a West Indies Academy squad in three four-day matches all of which have been accorded first-class status.
Drawn from the leading performers in the recently concluded 2023 West Indies Championship and those deemed to be on the fringe of the Test selection, Team Headley will be captained by Joshua DaSilva, the incumbent West Indies wicket-keeper batsman. Similarly, Team Weekes will be led by Alick Athanaze, the left-handed top-order batsman, whose Test debut now appears to be imminent.
CWI’s stated objective in naming the two Headley and Weekes teams is to provide further first-class opportunities to the best performers from the West Indies Championship in a competitive and intense setting. The Tri Series’ intention is also to provide opportunities for players who the Selectors believe would benefit from playing red-ball cricket as West Indies prepare for the upcoming “A” Team tour of Bangladesh and the two-Test Series against India at home.
Regarding the latter, the scheduled two Tests against India, the Selectors will, therefore, be hoping for there to be outstanding performances during the forthcoming Tri Series matches that will provide clear-cut solutions to some of the dilemmas they are now facing over the West Indies team. Foremost among which would be the final composition of the bowling unit and even more importantly that of the middle-order batting.
Of the two identified dilemmas, the bowling unit’s composition and the middle order batting makeup, the former should be by far the less challenging to resolve. The Test team’s inclusion of Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder and Gudakesh Motie should by now be above debate or opposition from any quarters. The only question remaining, therefore, would be as to who in the Selectors’ opinion would be the very best fifth bowler option that will significantly increase the West Indies’ chances of capturing the twenty Indian wickets that will be required to win either or both of the two scheduled Tests.
Kyle Mayers, with his propensity to effect breakthroughs and at times capture key wickets, has been the Selectors’ default choice of late. As some would suggest though at times seemingly far more as a direct result of his fellow countryman ties to at least two of the Selectors than for his actual demonstrated abilities.
Mayers’ actual wicket-taking production as a Test match bowler, however, remains unimpressive. Only 34 wickets taken in 28 innings bowled. An average of only a single wicket per innings and not at all the type of productivity that will win too many Test matches. Most certainly not against as strong a batting lineup as the Indians undeniably possess.
Mayers’ Test average as the team’s number five or six batsman has also been consistently headed in an entirely wrong direction. He now barely averages over 30 (32.72) and having already played 18 matches and batted in 32 innings is still yet to reach 1000 (949) Test runs.
If not Mayers then who? That should now be the primary question on the Selectors’ minds.
Kevin Sinclair, the Guyanese off-spinning allrounder who had an outstanding 2023 4Day Regional Championship with both bat and ball, might seem to be the most logical choice to serve as Mayers’ replacement. The Selectors though might be reluctant to choose a second spinner in the face of the Indian batsmen’s widely known and universally acknowledged strengths against slower rather than quicker forms of bowling.
If seam rather than spin will be the Selectors preference, then Barbados’ Dominic Drakes might prove to be the next best option. Although he only played in two of this year’s five 4-day tournament matches, Drakes with his pacy left-arm seam would add some variety to the West Indies bowling attack. He is also quite handy as a hard-hitting lower order batsman, in addition to being a dynamic fielder.
The Selectors’ eventual choice as to the fifth member of the bowling attack could also be influenced by their expectations of the pitches likely to be encountered at each of the identified venues for the two Tests. Those are yet to be announced, but whether the pitches are regarded as being conversely seam or spin friendly could have a bearing on the West Indies Selectors’ final bowling unit member choice.
Not so much the same with the batting dilemmas, however, as anticipated pitch conditions are not likely to have much of an influence on the Selectors’ determinations. Those would now appear to revolve around the best available choices for positions three, four, five and possibly six, in the West Indies batting order.
West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite will be expected to continue his opening batting partnership with Tagenarine Chanderpaul. With wicket-keeper batsman, Joshua DaSilva expected to join the aforementioned Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach and Gudaesh Motie as the West Indies chosen lower-order, only four batting positions would remain as available.
Kyle Mayers’ merits, or lack thereof, as the team’s batting all-rounder have already been examined. Based on his outstanding 2023 4Day tournament performances, Team Weekes captain Alick Athanaze would now also appear to be an almost certain recipient of his West Indies Test cap for the first match of the India Series. Where exactly in the order Athanaze should and would bat will certainly be subject to debate and conjecture.
So too will be the Selectors’ decision as to whether to continue with Jermaine Blackwood as the Test team’s vice-captain and number-four batsman. Blackwood’s performances in that very key batting role have remained frustratingly inconsistent, far too much like the proverbial roller coaster of highs and lows.
After 54 Tests and 98 innings, Blackwood now still averages an unsatisfactory 30.52. He has scored only three centuries and eighteen half-centuries in all of his highest-level appearances in the maroon West Indies cap.
Shai Hope, the recently appointed West Indies ODI captain who will be missing the Headley Weekes Tri Series as a result of his having been contracted by Yorkshire for this year’s English County Season, has been suggested as someone who could potentially step into the Test team’s number four batting slot for the India Series. Hope’s performances for Yorkshire, if meritorious to any degree, could very well nudge the Selectors in that direction.
So too could the performances of Brandon King during the forthcoming Tri Series. Despite not having played in any of this year’s 4Day tournament matches King has, however, been included in Team Weekes for the Tri Series. A very clear indication of the Selectors’ belief in his abilities to transform his demonstrated white ball batting capabilities into the longer version of the game.
Having played 32 First Class matches, King has scored almost 2000 runs (1986) at a moderate average of 34.84 with three centuries included. If he can produce any materialization of his obvious batting talents during the Tri Series, he too could well be in line for a Test debut as the West Indies’ number three for the forthcoming India matches.
Thirteen players have been selected for each of the Headley and Weekes Teams for the forthcoming Tri Series. Outside of the current Test players, Joshua DaSilva, Tagenarine Chanderpaul whose India matches participation would now be considered more or less guaranteed, all others will be seeking to register outstanding performances. And by so doing solidify their claims for India Tests selectorial consideration.
The Selectors on their part will indeed be just hoping to witness as many such performances as would allow them to identify viable solutions to their current dilemmas. Here’s to an interesting and enlightening inaugural Headley Weeks Tri Series tournament.