Bat, Bat and Bat Some More
The requirement to bat time in England could be the West Indies undoing, David Windram argues they may be overlooking the obvious answer...
Picture by Gareth-Copley Jones
What feels like the longest build up to a Test series in history is finally over and we are less than four days away from the restart of International Test cricket. Despite the protracted build up, there has perhaps never been a series with as little warm up cricket played, providing the potential for a chaotic three weeks ahead.
A grand total of just over five and half days “competitive” cricket will have been played in three months by the West Indies when they take the field on Wednesday. Not wanting to fall into the trap of providing dreaded “hot takes” from relatively meaningless intra-squad warm ups, there is not much learned that we didn’t already know - the batting is fragile and the bowling attack is electric.
It is quite clear that this series is likely going to be won or lost based on which side’s batting holds up. Test cricket is an examination of players techniques, where valuing your wicket is nigh on as important as scoring. Nowhere else is this point as pertinent as in England. The land of the overcast skies and hooping Dukes ball. Sprouting majestic seamers and swingers who seem to be able to send the ball down the wicket on a zip line before darting it away at the last second. To counter this sorcery batsmen need the ability to bat time, eat up deliveries and suffocate the new ball. You need players who don’t bow to scoreboard pressure or become distracted with strike rates.
This is where we need to talk about the Windies top order.
Statistical analysis to make you weep
Despite the unconvincing form of the top order over the last few years, the Windies haven’t had the top order depth to consider dropping players. Consequently the incumbents have only had to show brief glimpses in order to retain their place.
Lack of competition at home can subconsciously lead to bad technique and complacency. Batsmen perhaps become happier to play a more risky shot if the result is unlikely to have consequences beyond being another wicket down. Whilst it is not healthy to foster an environment of fearful cricketers, who play with such fear that they play within themselves. It is necessary to be able to strike the balance of laying a solid platform to an innings alongside calculated risk taking, the definition of modern test match batting as an opener.
Kraigg Braithwaite has to get back to his gritty best
It’s fair to say that the current incumbents of the top order have done little over the last five days to enhance the already paper thin confidence in them.
Brathwaite, Campbell, Brooks, Blackwood and Hope combined for a total of 67 runs in the second warm up game. More concerning is the fact that they faced a total of 84 balls for those 67 runs. Braithwaite, Brooks and Hope did all spend a significant amount of time at the crease in the previous game but it certainly raises concerns.
Campbell is, in my opinion, the man most at risk. He’s currently slated to open alongside Brathwaite, but in his 12 test innings to date, has faced an average of only 40.25 balls per innings. The ability to bat time is a habit and a skill to be honed. Being comfortable for the balls to tick by while your score doesn’t move, unfortunately this is something that Campbell has yet to demonstrate.
CricViZ has pointed out that Campbell is perhaps doing better than expected relative to the quality of balls he has faced but for a team that rarely gets a solid opening foundation. West Indies would be right to want better than a test match average of 29.80 especially as Braithwaite is also in a slump.
credit: cricviz
The selectors obviously value Campbell’s ability to score quickly, perhaps hoping that he can provide a spark at the top of an innings in a similar vein to someone like David Warner, but we all saw what happened to Warner when he tried to score quickly in last summer’s Ashes. With a top score at test level of 55, Campbell needs to prove that if he can’t bat time, he at least has the ability to explode and put up a big score.
Bumrah’s brilliance notwithstanding a top order collapse is not a rare occurrence.
In Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder, West Indies have middle order batsmen who can score hundreds if the opportunity arises, but this is dependent on the top order blunting the new ball, tiring out the English bowlers and giving the middle to lower order the freedom to score. If Chase, Dowrich and Holder are coming in early after a spate of early wickets and under pressure to build an innings, their strengths as batsmen are greatly diminished.
For me, this is where the argument for Joshua Da Silva to come straight in at the top of the order gets very interesting. I think it’s fair to say the 22 year old Trinidadian is a favourite of this parish and has been for over a year. Included in the touring squad to make up the reserve squad numbers for the intra-squad games, he has stood out with his patience at the crease and ability to score in difficult conditions. An exceptional 133 not out in the first innings of the second warm up game towered over the next highest scorer - ‘extras’ on 43!
However, more impressive was the six hours plus that he spent at the crease. Da Silva faced 248 balls across his innings, more than the rest of his team combined or the total combined balls faced by the whole of Brathwaite’s XI in the following innings. The temptation in an intra-squad friendly may have been to play a flashy 50 to catch the selectors eye, but what can be more impressive than walking out to open the innings and returning to the pavilion unbeaten. This was followed up by top scoring in his teams second innings with 56, again returning to the hut unbeaten.
Nominally a wicketkeeper, Da Silva recently told the Caribbean Cricket Podcast that he was just as happy as an opening batsman if the opportunity to keep is not there. A very promising domestic Four Day Championship with an average of 50.70 places Da Silva as very much the man in form. Again, more importantly, Da Silva faced a total of 939 deliveries across his 12 innings in the championship, at an average of 78.25 balls per innings. Interestingly, this was 226 balls more than John Campbell, despite playing 3 fewer innings across the season and, at times, coming in lower down the order.
Hear Josh narrate his first List A century…
In keeping with the comments from Phil Simmons earlier in the tournament, Da Silva and the rest of the reserves will not be added to the squad for at least the first two tests and are largely there as injury replacements. Nonetheless, Da Silva is very much waiting in the wings and could not have done much more to put his hand up for selection.
Often, the untried rookie will be seen as the risky selection and therefore be passed by. However, having demonstrated his ability to occupy the crease for a large amount of time, bat for time in difficult conditions and then convert that solid start into a score to shape an innings; perhaps Da Silva is the least risky of the lot.
Article edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt
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