The West Indies team completed its match play preparations for the forthcoming ICC 2022 T20 World Cup in a most positive manner, securing an emphatic two-wicket win in the third and final encounter of its three-match Series against the visiting New Zealand. Despite the victory, which allowed the West Indies to avoid yet another 0-3 Series loss after the Kiwis had convincingly won the first two matches, there now remain far more as yet unanswered questions about the team’s 2022 T20 World Cup readiness than those which have been conclusively answered.
Having missed the first two T20Is as a result of an injury, the exact nature of which was never fully disclosed by the relevant authorities, Brandon King returned to open the West Indies batting striking a majestic 53, made off just 35 balls and including three sixes and four boundaries. King’s superlative knock proved to be the foundation of the West Indies’ eventual eight-wicket victory. King featured in a 102-run opening partnership with Sharmarh Brooks who remained not out on 56. Brook’s half-century, made of 59 balls, included two sixes and three fours.
King’s displayed dominance has now undoubtedly cemented his status as the West Indies’ first-choice opening batsman for the 2022 T20 World Cup campaign which gets underway in Australia in mid-October. The question as to who should and will be his opening-batting partner, however, now remains unanswered with less than two months remaining before the campaign’s commencement.
Evan Lewis, who under normal circumstances would have been the shoo-in choice, has remained unavailable for selection reportedly as a result of ongoing fitness concerns. The thirty-year-old Lewis, who boasts a T20 record of 1423 runs scored from 49 innings batted at an average of 30.93 including two centuries and 10 fifties, hasn’t appeared in West Indies colours since playing against Australia in last year’s 2021 World Cup that was held in Abu Dhabi. His experience from having played over fifty T20I matches would, however, definitely be a most welcomed asset to the current vastly in-experienced West Indies squad, of which only two other members, Skipper Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmeyer, have played that many.
In Lewis’ continued absence the West Indies has used a variety of opening-batting combinations since the beginning of this year in their 2022 T20 World Cup preparation Series against first England, followed by Bangladesh, India and just most recently New Zealand. In the five-match Series against England, the utilized combinations were Brandon King and Shai Hope in the first three matches, followed by the former and Kyle Mayers for the final two. Against Bangladesh, the combination used was Mayers-Hope for both the second and third T20Is, after the first had been completely washed out by rain.
For the Series against India, King and Mayers were used in the first four matches. Their combination was, however, completely abandoned for the fifth and final T20I, with Jason Holder and Sharmarh Brooks, incredulously being given the innings-opening responsibilities! After the almost predictable abject failure of the Holder-Brooks experiment and with King’s enforced absence from the first two Kiwi T2oI’s as the result of his aforementioned injury of an unknown nature, Mayers and Brooks were used in those matches. The successful use of King and Brooks in the third and final T20I against the Kiwis, should now hopefully signal the end of what has been a most arduous search by the West Indies to find a suitable opening pair in Lewis’ absence.
Should Lewis continue to be unavailable, King and Brooks would now seem to be the most suitable of all the opening combinations used by the West Indies. Brooks has had scores of 5, 10, 49, 0, 12, 20, 13, 42, 7 and 56 not out in the 1o T20Is appearances he’s made to date in West Indies colours. His average over those 10 matches has been 23.77. Mayers’ scores, by comparison, have been 9, 6, 17, 55, 15, 8, 73, 14, 1 and 4. His overall average from 16 matches played is 23.50. Mayers also bowls, however, so who knows what the West Indies’ “thinks tank’s” eventual decision will be.
Evin Lewis has, however, also been named as a member of the St Kitts Patriots squad for this year’s 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League which runs from August 31 to September 30. West Indies Selection Chair, the Rt. Honourable Desmond Haynes, has also very recently indicated that he and his fellow Panel members will indeed be open to considering performances from this year’s CPL as part of their deliberations towards the final composition of the West Indies 15-member World Cup squad. Lewis could well, therefore, be a last-minute inclusion to the squad. So too could Fabian Allen who played in the first four matches of the West Indies-England Series but has not again appeared in West Indies colours since.
With 34 matches under his belt thus far, Allen is another with extensive T2oI experience that is so noticeably lacking in the current West Indies squad. His explosive batting, useful left-arm spin and world-class, ultra-dynamic, fielding would also provide three-dimensional assets to the squad’s composition. Allen has been listed as a member of Jamaica Tallawah’s 2022 Hero CPL squad and as such he too could be on the radar screens of Haynes et al for last-minute World Cup inclusion.
In terms of the West Indies’ potential World Cup bowling, Obed McCoy, Alzharri Joseph, Odean Smith and Akheal Hosein have all identified themselves as almost certainty-starters for the final XI. By sheer virtue of his comparative experience, Jason Holder also has to be included in that mix although his performances of late can only best be described as inconsistent. Much the same can also be said for those of both the bowling all-rounder Romario Shepherd, as well as Haydn Walsh the leg spinner.
Through the fifteen T20Is that the West Indies have played this year toward its World Cup preparation, there has been no clear indication as to which combination of those aforementioned seven bowlers would best suit its required objective of sufficiently restricting opposition totals. In the recently concluded third and final T20I against New Zealand, the West Indies’ eventual victory was fashioned on the outstanding performance of its bowlers in restricting the Kiwis to a very gettable twenty overs total of 145/7, which the batsmen then subsequently overcame in a most comfortable manner.
Considered to be the West Indies’ first choice seamer, Obed McCoy was, however, rested for that encounter. His place was taken by Dominic Drakes an almost identical left-arm seamer. Drakes had impressive figures of 1/19 from his four overs. With only 15 places available for the final squad and with five seamers in McCoy, Joseph, Holder, Smith and Shepherd already seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order, it will be a difficult choice for Haynes and Co to make in terms of Drakes’ inclusion as a sixth seamer.
In addition to the still existing uncertainties surrounding the West Indies squad and likely final eleven composition, there has also been no clear evidence of what their batting and bowling plans will be during the actual World Cup. Very high percentages of dot balls faced by the batsmen and their continuing strike rotation failures are still as much of an issue as they ever were. There has also been no clear indication as to which bowling combinations would be most advantageous for the West Indies to use at any of the three crucial and match outcome-defining stages of their opponent’s innings. At the very beginning during the first six-overs power play, within the middle section of overs seven to fifteen, or even more importantly at the death in the final five.
Fifteen 2022 T20 World Cup preparation matches played by the West Indies, after which the existing questions still outnumber by far those that have now been conclusively answered. “To fail to plan is to plan to fail!”