A Test bowler will always fancy his or her chances to be given an early breakthrough when they bowl against the West Indies.
Rajendra Chandrika
From July 2016 to present, West Indies played 32 Test matches and had six different opening pairs. The opening partnerships have not been up to scratch, hence West Indies’ inconsistency at the Test level.
For a building to be declared strong, the foundation must be a good one. In this context, the West Indies Test foundation has been one of the factors in a broken, inconsistent Test house. In those 32 Tests, since 2016, 1456 runs were scored by the Test opening partnership. The opening partnerships during this
John Campbell
period number 23, with ten 50-plus stands, including one century stand in the 61st innings.
Kraigg Brathwaite has been the number one opening batsman since then, featuring in the majority of the matches. Brathwaite and Rajendra Chandrika opened the batting against India in July 2016 in the Caribbean. The highest stand between that pair during that period was 30. After two matches
Devon Smith
, Leon Johnson accompanied Brathwaite at the top of the order.
That duo scored a 59-run stand but after that, it was an inconsistent road for the opening pair. Darren Bravo, in one innings against Pakistan, opened the batting with Johnson and they had a 27-run stand.
When Pakistan toured the West Indies, Kieran
Kraigg Brathwaite
Powell accompanied Brathwaite at the top. After 14 innings together, then came the duo’s first 50-plus stand. It was a 76-run stand against Zimbabwe.
It then became a smooth road for Brathwaite and Powell, scoring back-to-back half-century stands. In New Zealand, the duo had 59 and 72 in the same Test match.
Kieran Powell
For five Test matches, Devon Smith returned to the West Indies team and joined forces with Brathwaite at the top of the order. In the nine innings of this opening pair, their top stands were 59 and 113, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, respectively.
Unfortunately, that 113-run partnership was the only 100+ score in the 61 Test innings for the West Indies since July 2016 to present. The
Leon Johnson
left-handed Powell then returned to the Test team and in the eight innings he and Braithwaite faced against India and Bangladesh, the highest opening stand was a meagre 32.
In 2019, England toured the Caribbean and it was somewhat a new era with John Campbell and Brathwaite at the top of the order. Not only did the West Indies win the Test series, but Campbell and Brathwaite had opening stands of 53, 52, 70, 17, 57, and 5 in the three-match series. That was the most consistent patch for any opening pair in recent times.
Despite that, it was back to inconsistency when the duo opened the batting against India and Afghanistan.
Against India in the Caribbean, the openers had partnerships of 36, 7, 9 and 9. In the last West Indies Test match against Afghanistan, the opening pair added 27 and 22 to their tally.
How long will the wait be until the entertaining West Indies side finds a stable opening pair from this current or future batch, reminiscent of a Sir Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes combination?
