After Test series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, for the year 2021, the West Indies are undefeated in Test matches thus far. The Kraigg Brathwaite-led team have shown improvements, and the results prove.
Former West Indies and Guyana captain Ramnaresh Sarwan has also been “pleased’ to see the improved application showed by the West Indies Test batsmen.
Ramnaresh Sarwan
In the Bangladesh series which West Indies won 2-0, the batting was led by newcomers Kyle Mayers, Nkrumah Bonner, and Joshua Da Silva. Fast-track to the Caribbean, where West Indies played Sri Lanka. Captain Brathwaite led from the front with the bat, while Mayers, Bonner, and company backed up the skipper.
The patience showed by the West Indies batsmen was different and, for the first time since 2012, five batsmen from the West Indies team averaged over 50. The former West Indies skipper, Sarwan said: “I think the fact that these guys are applying themselves in the batting for long period is a very good sign. Obviously, Test cricket is over five days, and it is important that, when you are batting, you try and spend as much time at the crease, and I think they have demonstrated that.”
If “Patience” was the name of a batsman in the West Indies Test team, it certainly would have been captain Brathwaite. The right-hander, who was the “player of the match” in the second and final Test, with scores of 126 and 85, batted for 813 minutes, the most by a West Indian in a Test.
“Of course Kraigg we know what he is capable of, and hopefully, the rest of the guys (would) continue to apply themselves and spend as much time at the crease,” Sarwan said in a recent Sean Devers Radio Program.
In that Bangladesh series, Mayers topped the charts with 261 runs in two Tests, including a superb 210 on debut which led West Indies to a historic win. Bonner made 231 runs in that series while the wicket-keeper batsman Da Silva made 174 runs.
In the recent Sri Lanka series, Brathwaite led the West Indies batting with 237 runs, while Mayers scored 201 runs, and Bonner, who scored his maiden century, had 144 runs in three innings. Jason Holder (138), Rahkeem Cornwall (134) and Da Silva (102) were the other batsmen who applied themselves when given the opportunity in the Sri Lanka Tests. (Brandon Corlette)
