Time to ring the bell

Is Daniel Bell-Drummond the answer for the West Indies?

Imagine this scenario pre-pandemic. A double T20 World Cup in still on for Australia 2020 and India 2021 but there has been some movements in the West Indian camp. Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond has chosen to exercise his Jamaican roots due to his frustration at not realizing his English dream. Phil Simmons however has realised he could have an all format player on his hands.

Should this fantasy scenario ever play out Bell-Drummond could turn out to be the missing link for some of the West Indies top order woes.

At current John Campbell is the preferred Test opening partner alongside Kraigg Brathwaite however his technique has rightly come under scrutiny as he struggles to adapt to international cricket. Brathwaite, the experienced one of the pair, has himself struggled as he averages 22.79 since the start of 2018 – that would mean Bell-Drummond would be in business right? Not quite.

Bell-Drummond may average 32.59 in FC cricket which isn’t bad given he plys his trade in England and Canterbury (a seam bowlers paradise in recent years) but he has only averaged 20.76 at the top of the order since the beginning of the 2018 season.

That form saw him demoted to number 5 in Kent’s order in the 2019 season where he averaged 35.68 across the 14 matches (5th highest run scorer) before returning to the top of the order for the 2020 season.

The recent struggles of the majority of the West Indies top order in England suggests Bell-Drummond’s proven ability would catapult him above the incumbents.

Perhaps a harder route into the West Indian team for Daniel Bell-Drummond would be the white ball route, especially when you consider the star quality the WIndies have available to them. List A cricket is actually a massive strength of Bell-Drummond’s. Some may remember July 2016 when Bell-Drummond whacked 171 from 139 balls in an unbeaten 367 run partnership with Ben Duckett against Sri Lanka A for the England Lions. This partnership was the second highest partnership in List A cricket at the time and whilst Duckett stole the plaudits with a double century, Bell-Drummond’s performance shouldn’t have been as underestimated as it was.

Duckett found himself on tours of Bangladesh and India that winter, the strength of England’s top order meant that the likes of Jason Roy, Alex Hales and latterly, Jonny Bairstow got the opportunities that Bell-Drummond may have received within any other set up in world cricket.

However, Bell-Drummond was not put off by this. His form in recent times in 50 over cricket has been sensational. He averages 47.79 at a strike rate of 88.0 since the start of 2018. The question is would this form be good enough to put him into the Windies’ ODI squad? The jury is out…

The West Indies have five players in Shai Hope, Chris Gayle, John Campbell, Sunil Ambris and Evin Lewis who have opened the batting in ODIs since January 2018 and all average 40+ during this time. Hope, Gayle, Campbell and Ambris have also registered scored of 150+ during this time and of course, the talent of Lewis is undeniable with experience all around the world – although this is where Bell-Drummond could have found his way in.

The availability of the likes of Lewis and Gayle (who has caused a lot of confusion over his ODI retirement) is always questionable given the fact that they are such sought after T20 players. With that said an opening pair of Shai Hope and Daniel Bell-Drummond could be seen as the perfect duo to set up an innings for the likes of Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran to then come and play with some freedom.

Yet it is T20 cricket where Bell-Drummond surprisingly has his best opportunity to break through into the Maroon.

Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis have been the main stay at the top of the Windies’ order since 2018. Brandon King has also been tried but you’d say that Simmons (with an average of 47.00 from 9 innings) and Lewis (who has opened 17 times since the start of 2018) are pretty set here.

However, Simmons is 35 years of age and Bell-Drummond may well be the perfect replacement for the Trinbago star. In the last 3 editions of the T20 Blast in England, Bell-Drummond has amassed 1112 runs at an average of 32.71 but more impressively he has got these at a strike rate at 140.0. In most countries, this would be enough to get him a go at international level but as stated earlier, England are well stocked at the top of the order.

The subtlety in Bell-Drummond’s aggressive play puts him under the radar a lot and although we are comparing him at English domestic level to the elite international level, it would be a very interesting scenario should we see him on the international stage.

Whether Bell-Drummond would ever choose to exercise his heritage and go through the qualification process is very questionable but it would be an interesting prospect to see a man lost in the riches of England’s white ball team come and fulfil his potential for the West Indies.

Articled edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt

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