Now that the dust has settled on the announcement of the West Indies squads that are scheduled to tour New Zealand in the coming weeks, there are a few topical selections I would like to weigh in on.
Right off the bat, Roger Harper’s assertiveness in dropping the out-of-sorts Shai Hope, which was no surprise, is perhaps his bravest selection move since taking over the job just over a year ago. It must have been a tough call for Harper to exclude one of game’s purest batsmen, let alone one of the best in the region, however, his dropping is justified.
Hope has been prolific in One Day internationals, where he averages over 50; it’s in stark contrast to his test career where he operates at just over 25. His returns during West Indies’ most recent tour of England didn’t help his cause. He averaged below 18 on that tour and should have been dropped for the final match of the three-match series.
Nevertheless, Harper has been chided for wielding the axe at Hope by former West Indies fast bowler Tony Gray, who argued that Hope should have been in the squad at the expense of all-rounder, Keemo Paul. There are several things glaringly and hopelessly (no pun on hopelessly) wrong with Gray’s position.
Hope needed to be dropped and secondly, the two players in question aren’t similar. Gray should know this; one is an all-rounder and the other is a stroke- maker, a batsman.
John Campbell, on the other hand, should be counting his lucky stars. He was included in the squad despite a torrid international test career. On the tour of England, the left-hander struggled and only scored 84 runs from six innings.
However, Harper showed faith with Campbell and preferred him over Barbadian opener Shayne Moseley and Joshua DaSilva, who are both capable of doing the job; both men are in the reserves.
On a positive note, the inclusion of Darren Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer are welcoming selections that should bolster the top order and batting line up. Meanwhile, pundits were expecting to see upcoming sensation Nicholas Pooran included in the test squad. Pooran, despite his limited outings in the red-ball format at the first-class level, is certainly one to be considered to slot into the middle order down the road and it will be interesting to observe how Harper manages his transition into the test side.
On the bowling side, there aren’t too many different calls that could have been made outside of the consideration for Guyanese Veersammy Permaul, who was once again overlooked, despite his prolific returns at the first-class level.
(Sports Editor’s note: Royston Alkins is a former Guyana U19 cricketer)
