If West Indies is serious about progressing further in the T20 cricket World Cup its management has to don a thinking cap.
It means the selection panel has to come up with a solution to boost the team’s weak batting which could improve significantly if the Jason Holder omission issue is rectified.
A bold decision has to be made to play Holder as a batsman in the lineup after the 2012 champions squeaked to two narrow wins and eventually imploded in an embarrassing defeat to minnows Afghanistan in its last three matches.
In T20 competitions, run targets in the 120s are supposed to be easy regardless of the strength of the opposition or type of playing conditions.
However, since a one-man demolition job by Chris Gayle of England that resulted in West Indies surpassing 182 to win over England, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Afghanistan have exposed the West Indies’ main weakness as they struggled to reach targets of less than 125 runs.
It is a pattern quite evident as the Caribbean team’s batting has failed to impress in most of its pre-World Cup warm-up matches since arriving on the sub-continent.
Holder, is considered a fast bowler but ever since his introduction to West Indies in 2013, his batting has improved and as of now, he is one of the more consistent producers in the team.
In last year’s 50 overs World Cup, Holder was second only to Gayle in the averages, with an impressive 51.66, notching 155 runs at a quality strike rate of 112, batting way down in the order at number nine and eight, from four appearances at the crease.
That was one year ago when Holder was thrust with the captaincy at the tender age of 24 and having to deal with bowling contributions, in a high stress situation.
His 42 off 26 balls against New Zealand, along with 57 against India and 56 off South Africa, at more than a run-a ball, were special from a number nine batsman in the order and given his superior technique in attack when measured against his teammates, Holder should be in any West Indies limited overs or T20 team.
The Barbadian also has a Test century and more than his fair share of half centuries playing as a bowler.
He is not a stand and deliver swiper, but uses his feet well and attacks with a straight bat, which can hardly be credited to the majority of his teammates. Yet, Holder has been a spectator so far in this competition in India and for almost every West Indies T20 game, he is considered merely a bowler and if that aspect of his game could do with some improvement, it could be better with more exposure.
Since the ODI World Cup played Down Under, West Indies had two other limited games and which saw useful contributions from Holder against Sri Lanka, batting at the bottom.
Apart from Gayle and Andre Fletcher (although the former’s frail defense was exposed by young South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada) every West Indian batsman has struggled in India.
Marlon Samuels is not at his best, Johnson Charles is out of his depth as an opener, Dinesh Ramdin seems overworked while Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell’s stand and deliver approach is proving again and again, how ineffective it is at the highest level of competition.
As for Darren Sammy, his role in the team is not for the first time, a controversial choice.
His batting weakness to quality spin bowling is clear to see as his two failures from two innings have made him a liability. His bowling was not needed before he decided, as is his usual practice to introduce himself when the damage has already been done by others, but it did not work out even against Afghanistan, when the lowest ranked of the teams at the Cup, was tottering at 51 runs for four wickets.
So the captain’s contributions with the bat and ball didn’t help prevent Associate member team Afghanistan from recording only its second victory against a Test country outside of lowly Zimbabwe.
The question now is what Sammy’s purpose in the team? Is he now a specialist captain?
The St Lucian is a good fielder and his tactics on the field are not what Holder, the Test and ODI captain cannot better.
Every other captain in teams left in the World Cup, fully warrant their places, and the dropping of Sammy would surely improve West Indies chances of toppling a pumped India in the semis following the home team’s impressive dismantling of Australia to advance.
Given the questionable status of Fletcher, West Indies batting is more vulnerable than ever, and if Sammy is not rested, India’s spin trio of Ravi Ashwin, Ravendra Jadeja and Suresh Raina are set to cause him more humiliation.
Even if Fletcher’s hamstring is good for Thursday’s semi-final, he should open with Gayle with Charles being dropped down the order. Evin Lewis is not an option at the top either.
Holder is a better bet before either of the two in the middle which should’ve been anchored by Darren Bravo, whose absence is the latest case of the dysfunctional state of West Indies cricket management.
The board’s acceptance of the Trinidadian’s refusal to represent his team at the World Cup is as nutty a decision as they come.
It surely is a case of dereliction of duty as the player’s explanation of wanting to play four-day cricket for Trinidad and Tobago instead, is tantamount to a manager telling his CEO he wants to be the office boy, or messenger of the company.
Darren Bravo should’ve been ordered to be at the World Cup, or be suspended from all forms of competition and fined.
Could anyone imagine an NBA club player telling his coach he wants to play in the ‘D’ league instead or Manchester United’s Danny Wellbeck informing Louis Van Gaal he wants to go to second division football?
But such abnormalities are par for the course in West Indies cricket where you have a T20 team captain, who was sacked as ODI captain and retired from Tests after anticipating the axe, still hanging in with a younger more reliable replacement plunked on the bench.
