Based on the ICC’s recently announced match fixtures, the eventual winner of this year’s Caribbean and USA jointly hosted T20 World Cup tournament will be required to play a total of nine matches and be victorious in at least seven. Four Group Round matches, three more in the Super8 stage, one of the two scheduled semi-finals, and, of course, the final will be the required participation for any team desirous of hoisting the trophy when the tournament reaches its conclusion on June 29 at Barbados’ iconic Kensington Oval. Triumph in at least three of the four Group Stage matches, as well as two of the Super8 encounters should be sufficient for any team to qualify as one of the four semi-final contenders. Victory at which stage would then earn a berth in the final.
For the West Indies to emerge as 2024 T20 World Cup Champions for a historic, unprecedented, third time, the outlined nine-match involvement will require the most rigorous preparation, commencing from the forthcoming three-match T20I tour of Australia, and continuing through to their June 2 opening encounter against Papua New Guinea in Guyana. As part of the preparation, several key decisions will have to be made while existing team weaknesses and inadequacies will need to be fortified and altogether eliminated.
Topping the list of such requirements will be for the Rt. Hon Desmond Haynes led Selection Panel to choose the fifteen players who would be best suited to providing the West Indies with the greatest possible chance of eventually emerging as 2024 T20 World Cup Champions. Most Caribbean cricket fans, whether they are located in the region, or further beyond within the wider Diaspora, would now most likely be in universal agreement with at least twelve of those fifteen. Namely Brandon King, Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran, captain Rovman Powell, Sherfayne Rutherford, Jason Holder, Andre Russell, Romario Shepherd, Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph and Oshane Thomas.
That then would leave just three additional names to be decided. My suggestions for which would be Alick Athanze, Shimron Hetmyer, and Hyden Walsh. Athanaze could fulfill dual roles as an opening batting partner for Brandon King or a middle-order batter replacement should any of the other candidates prove to be insufficiently productive. With his youth, agility, outstanding fielding, and superb catching, Atahanaze would also be a far more worthy pick than either of the repeatedly demonstrated failures Kyle Mayers or Johnson Charles as King’s opening batting partner.
The solution to the burning question as to who would best be served as King’s opening could, however, alternatively and most readily be found in Shai Hope. With his proven ability to seamlessly shift gears from early innings caution to over-aggression, Hope would be the ideal foil for King who would then be allowed full freedom to play his natural free-scoring game. King and Hope also run very well together between the wickets which would correct the West Indies’ long-established, most unwelcomed, tendency of recording far too many non-scoring dot balls during the early, first power play, overs of their T20I innings.
A batting order top five of King, Hope, Pooran, Powell, and either Rutherford or Hetmyer should then be sufficient to provide the West Indies with the necessary foundation for first-strike over 300 totals or whatever is needed to chase down their opponents’ posted score. Despite the paucity of his recent scores for the West Indies in T20Is. Hetmyer’s talents as a middle-order finisher are still sufficiently obvious to warrant his squad inclusion.
The identified King, Hope, Pooran, Powell, Hetmyer/Rutherford top-order batting would also allow the West Indies the required luxury of playing five frontline bowlers with Andre Russell to be used most selectively as a sixth bowling option. As was illustrated during the recent T20I home series against England. Russell is now simply too unreliable to be used within a five-man bowling unit. A unit comprised of four-seamers in Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, and Russell together with Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie as the two left-arm spinners should provide the West Indies with sufficient variety to allow the restriction of their opponents’ totals to under 300 when batting first or below the West Indies posted score when chasing.
Oshane Thomas satisfactorily established his worth as a backup, genuinely quick, seamer during the recent England series. Sufficiently so for his squad inclusion to be fully merited. Five seamers among the fourteen already identified would then dictate that the fifteenth and final squad spot should be for an additional spinner of a somewhat different variety to the left-arm spin of both Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie. With his penetrative right-arm leg spin, lower-order power-hitting batting, and world-class fielding who better than Hayden Walsh could there possibly be as the most worthy final pick?
With the final squad of 15 having been identified by the Selectors, the onus for satisfactory preparation will then switch to the team’s brain trust led by Head Coach Daren Sammy. As a two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain, Sammy should know as well, if not better, than anyone else exactly what will be required for the West Indies to eventually emerge as 2024 champions. One of the challenges he and his coaching cadre will have to address will be the identification of the ideal combination of bowlers to execute the final five, death overs, of their respective opponents’ innings. Toward that end, Sammy would be well advised to include among his 2024 World Cup coaching assistants the world-renowned champion expert of economical, wicket-taking, T20 death-over bowling Dwayne Bravo. As a former West Indies white-ball captain and member of both the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup-winning teams Bravo has all the knowledge and experience that could potentially be of great shared value to the current crop of semaers.
Achieving optimal individual fitness, gelling as a unit, catching flawlessly, fielding superbly, and throwing with deadly direct hits accuracy will all be required by the West Indies team if they are to indeed eventually be successful in the required number of played matches. At least seven of nine as previously indicated.
Much to be done, and as of now in the less than five months that remain available!