The West Indies A Team concluded its May 17 – June 2, 2023, Bangladesh Tour with a one-win, two draws victorious record. Apart from the most welcome, highly encouraging, overall victory the series has also provided the West Indies Test Selectors with some extremely useful pointers. Such pointers which it is now hoped will be put to the best possible use in determining the composition of West Indies Test teams in the months ahead.
The first set of available pointers can be gleaned from the overall statistics for the West Indies batsmen during the series. The top five positions in the Batting Averages listing were occupied by skipper Joshua DaSilva (100), Tagenarine Chanderpaul (68.78), Kevin St Clair (49.66), Alick Athanaze (44.00) and Kirk McKenzie (41.80).
Joshua Da Silva’s batting performance during the series was exemplary. As captain he led from the front, often enough restoring the innings to some semblance of stability after the early loss of top-order wickets.
Da Silva’s 300 runs series-leading aggregate was punctuated by two half-centuries including a highest-score 82. He also hit 33 fours and six sixes in his five series crease appearances. His outstanding form also suggests a fully warranted promotion in the West Indies Test batting order. He should now definitely be batting at number six, and ahead of Jason Holder.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s demonstrated overall consistency, in scoring 275 runs from his five innings batted, would also have been pleasing to the Selectors. His A-Team Bangladesh Series returns will, hopefully, have left Chanderpaul in fairly good form for his next far more challenging assignment. Opening the batting alongside Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite when the West Indies Home Series against the touring Indians gets underway in Dominica on July 12, 2023.
Kevin St Clair’s returns with the bat, 149 runs scored from four innings for an impressive 49.66, were highly encouraging. As impressive as they were, however, they paled by comparison to his bowling.
The wily, Guyana-born, off-spinner took 13 wickets during the series. His scalps were captured at an outstanding 25.69 average and with a measly 3.27 economy rate. Sinclair’s returns also included one five-wicket (5/79) haul.
St Clair’s outstanding all-round series performance should have earned him a spot in the West Indies 14-member squad for the July 11 first Test against India. Whether he makes his debut during the Test remains to be seen, but at the very least he must now be in the squad.
So too should Alick Athanaze. The 220 runs series aggregate and 44.00 average series performance would have undoubtedly reinforced his claims for squad inclusion and perhaps even a Dominica India Tour opening Test debut!
Rounding out the list of top five West Indies A Team batsmen with the highest Bangladesh Tour averages was the exciting, still only twenty-two years old, Barbadian prodigy Kirk McKenzie. His series performance would have reminded the Selectors that he is one for the future. It should now only be a question of when, with regards to his eventual Test team inclusion.
Noticeably the West Indies’ controversially current Test #3 batsman, Raymon Reifer, finished the Series with a highly unflattering average of 29.40. Reifer’s inadequate Series batting performance should now be a source of major disappointment for his fellow Barbadian countrymen Selection Chair, the Rt Honourable Desmond Haynes and Co-Selector Roland Butcher. So much so that it might even have given them both cause to rethink their highly controversial and overly unpopular choice of him as the West Indies’ current number three.
Brandon King, regarded by many West Indies cricket fans as a far more suitable Test number three than Reifer, did not have the very best of a series in Bangladesh with early dismissal ducks in both of his first two innings. King, however, batted beautifully to score a superlative 54 in the second Test. An innings which should have been sufficient to convince the Selectors of his far superior suitability to the West Indies Test number three role than Reifer.
Among the other all-rounders Akeem Jordan, 71 runs from three innings, average 35.50, and 12 wickets taken at 18.16 apiece and with a 2.82-economy rate, was by far the most outstanding. Jordan was yet another of those whose Bangladesh Tour performances would have served as pointers to the Selectors for India Test Series squad inclusion. It would certainly be a major surprise to most fans, if Jordan’s name is not among those announced as members of the West Indies squad for the first Test against India.
Jair McAllister, the impressively quick Barbadian pacer, captured 10 wickets at a 20.80 average and 4.18 economy rate during the Bangladesh Series. Returns which could also very well earn him a surprise call-up for the India first Test. McAllister’s threatening pace might be viewed by the Selectors as a perfect x-factor surprise weapon to be used as a means of unsettling the Indians vaunted world-class top-order batting.
From a batting order promotion for Josh DaSilva, through to suggested Test squad inclusions for the likes of Alick Athanaze, Brandon King, Kevin St Clair, Akeem Jordan and Jair McAllister, the Bangladesh A Team tour has certainly provided the West Indies Selectors with some very useful pointers with regard to the Test team’s composition. By extension, the series has also provided another set of pointers which would be that the Selectors over-reliance on often tried invariably proven Test failures such as Shamarh Brooks, Kyle Mayers, Jermaine Blackwood and Roston Chase now no longer needs to be continued. As evidenced by the Bangladesh series returns, for both bat and ball, more than enough players are waiting in the wings for provided opportunities to prove their worthiness as replacements for the repeated failures.
What sense would there be to engaging in such A Team tours if at the conclusion those whose performances have been outstanding enough to merit Test squad inclusion are not actually provided with such an opportunity? Expecting different more favourable results from repeated unproductive activities is the definition of insanity. Time, therefore, for the selectorial madness that has characterized West Indies Test team/squads compositions within recent times, through the inclusions of Raymon Reifer, Shamarh Brooks, Kye Mayers, Jermaine Blackwood, and Roston Chase, to be immediately discontinued.
When the West Indies Home Series against India gets underway in Dominica on July 11, let the eleven who step onto the field, all uniformly clad in their maroon caps, be reflective of a new-look Test team. Some reliable regulars such as skipper Kraigg Brathwaite, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, a returning Shai Hope, the hopefully newly appointed vice-captain Josh Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, and the veteran Kemar Roach present for sure.
Joining them also, however, at least three new caps in Alick Athanaze, Akeem Jordan, and Brandon King. Warming the benches, while patiently waiting in the wings for their respective calls to the fore, should illness or injury intervene, would be Kirk McKenzie, Jair McAllister, and Kevin St Clair.
Provided Bangladesh Tour pointers having been duly utilized by the Selectors in the best possible manner!