WEST INDIES vs SRI LANKA – What can we expect from the T20I/ODI squads?

A look at the upcoming white ball series and what to expect

The West Indies are back on home soil and it is obviously a much different white ball outfit that faced Bangladesh in January with a lot more availability for this series, including the return of Kieron Pollard.

The T20s present a great chance for the members in this squad to stake a claim for the World T20 in India. According to the West Indian Cricket Team Future Schedules, the Windies will welcome both Australia and Pakistan to the Caribbean for T20 series, with the Aussies also playing a 50 over series but surely those tours will be used to develop strategy as opposed to seeing what players can do. 

The return of Kieron Pollard is absolutely massive for both the ODI and T20I sides, he will come fresh from managing a Trinidad and Tobago Red Force side that has dominated the domestic Super50 competition and although he seemed to have the most talented squad, he has managed them well and bought around a successful campaign.

One of the men who have lit up Pollard's Trinidad and Tobago side is Akeal Hosein. In Hosein and Fabian Allen, the West Indies have versatile spinners who can bowl with the new white ball in both ODI and T20I cricket. From the NZ tour onwards, I spoke about how big these tours were for Hayden Walsh Jr but with the emergence of Hosein and the multiple skill set of Allen, Walsh Jr seems to have fallen down the pecking order after an erratic Super50 campaign. There was talk that Guyanese left arm orthodox bowler, Gudakesh Motie would push for the spot following a really successful Super50 campaign but Roger Harper spoke about Hosein’s performance in the CPL and in Bangladesh meaning that the Trinidadian kept his spot in the squad.

Kevin Sinclair has also been added to the squad which gives Pollard an option should he be faced with left handed batters such as the likes of Dimuth Karunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella or Danushka Gunathilaka. However, Sinclair is definitely picked on merit – the start he has had to his career in all formats has been impressive and even though he has 5 wickets at 35.60 during this edition of Super50, the wider picture of his career shows a lot of potential for the 21 year old which the West Indies will hope he realises during the white ball legs of this series. Roger Harper said on Sinclair; ‘Kevin Sinclair grabbed our attention in the Super50 Cup back in 2019 and has been consistently economical in the last CPL and the current CG Insurance Super50’.

Moving on from the West Indian spin department, many will be excited at the return of Chris Gayle to the T20 squad. What will be interesting is how Kieron Pollard and Phil Simmons fit Gayle in with Evin Lewis and Lendl Simmons who have been opening the batting for Trinidad in the Super50 cup. Gayle himself found himself batting at 3 for the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the last edition of the IPL and at the Quetta Gladiators in the 2 games he played in the PSL. The reason for Gayle being demoted to 3 seems to have come from his perceived impact should be break into the middle and death overs of a T20 innings. In T20, Gayle hits a six every nine balls – only Andre Russell and Hardik Pandya have a better six per ball ratio. At 41 years of age, Gayle has seemed to re-establish himself as a middle overs hitter which opens up many exciting possibilities for the West Indies. 

In preparation for this series, Gayle played 2 games in the PSL along with the whole T10 competition. The T10 has been fruitful competition for this West Indian T20 squad and has resulted in Fabian Allen finding form with the ball but also the rediscovery of the young man, Obed McCoy and the experienced man, Fidel Edwards. We will talk about Fidel first and whilst his returns seemed pretty standard in T10 compared to the other bowlers (as in they were good, not quite outstanding). This has been a storm brewing since the CPL where he took 9 wickets at 25.55 but at an economy of 7.66 which was good in a Jamaica Tallawahs side that struggled as a unit. What Fidel brings is an option in the PP that the West Indies have lacked, with him and the returning Jason Holder – there are finally guys who can complement Sheldon Cottrell in delivering seam overs in the PowerPlay.

Obed McCoy really put himself in the frame during T10 and I think it would be fair to say that without his performance in T10 – he would not be near the Windies T20 squad. McCoy’s left arm seam will soften the blow of Sheldon Cottrell’s limited fitness (especially at the death) and his return of 10 wickets whilst striking every 10 balls in T20 was good but the outstanding feat was going at just 8.17 runs per over in a competition where a run rate of 12 runs per over is the norm. 

Another star in the T10 was Rovman Powell who seems to have revived his form after a lean CPL and New Zealand tour. While his hard hitting abilities against pace are well known, the manner in which he took responsibility in the ODIs in Bangladesh was promising. In the absence of Andre Russell in the T20s, and Shimron Hetmyer and Roston Chase in the ODIs, he will want to continue his impressive run and stake a claim for a consistent spot in the future.

Speaking of Hetmyer, while it is disappointing that he is losing his way in terms of fitness, the management will be glad they still have enough time to correct course before any ICC event. It will be hoped that Hetmyer himself recognizes not only how much he is losing, but also how much the West Indies side is missing out on his prodigious talent. In this series, the effects of his omission will largely be felt on the ODI side. There are few batsmen in the world who can strike at over a run a ball in ODIs with good consistency and Hetmyer is one of them.

The last point of this squad that should excite the West Indies fans would be the return of Shai Hope to the set up. Hope has missed a lot of the Super50 due to catching Covid-19 but he has returned with two fifties in three innings. With recent bias being so prevalent in sport – it is easy to just judge Hope on his Test Match form since his twin hundreds at Headingley but in every calendar year since 2018, Hope has averaged over 47.00 every year. 

In addition to that, under Captain Kieron Pollard – Hope averages 81.44. Pollard’s leadership seems to bring the best out of Hope but what will need improving is his home record. Hope averages 31.56 and strikes at 64.9 in ODI cricket in the West Indies. Given Hope’s strike rate tends to be extremely low for someone who faces the hard new ball, it is imperative that he covers for that with a high batting average. The aim will be to register his first home hundred for the Windies and this would be the series to do it when he seems to have been written off by a lot of West Indian fans.

We will see what happens in the coming weeks – many fans will expect a whitewash for both white ball legs of this series and with the teams matched up, the Windies must be the favourites going into both series. 

By Luke Dunning, with data provided by Karthikeya Manchala

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