– 7 series wins, 7 series losses since 2016 World T20
By Brandon Corlette
Nicholas Pooran’s fireworks in the first T20 International, Sheldon Cottrell’s four wickets in the series, and Devendra Bishoo’s wicket maiden in the final match were among the few positives shown by the men in maroon in the recently-concluded Sandals T20 International series.
The newly-appointed T20 Captain, Jason Holder stated that his team were not ashamed of their series performance.
England’s 2019 tour to the Caribbean was filled with unexpected events; from Windies claiming the Test series 2-1, levelling the One-Day International (ODI) series 2-2 and suffering a T20I whitewash 3-0. Since the 2016 International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20, West Indies played 14 T20 International series, winning seven and losing seven of those (including World T20).
Chris Jordan was the star of the series
Post the Darren Sammy-led Windies World T20 triumph in 2016, Windies played India in the United States of America in 2016 and won a two-match series 1-0. Windies then lost to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Caribbean 3-0 and 3-1 in 2016/17 respectively.
After that double blow against Pakistan, Windies won three T20 International series on the bounce in the 2017 period. These series wins came against Afghanistan (3-0); India (1-0); and England (1-0). The patchy performances continued with Windies experimenting with players, they then suffered 2-0 and 3-0 overseas losses against New Zealand and Pakistan respectively.
The most recent T20 series win for Windies came against Bangladesh in their 2018/19 overseas tour. It was the Carlos Brathwaite-led team that won the three-match series 2-1.
At the end of this T20 International series, England’s Chris Jordan was awarded Player of the Series for his six wickets in three matches. Left-arm swing bowler David Willey ended the series with six wickets while the ever-consistent leg-spinner, Adil Rashid had five wickets in the series.
Reflecting on the batting performances in the series, England’s Jonny Bairstow finished as the leading run scorer with 117 runs at an average of 39, and a high score of 68. The only other batsman to cross the 100-run mark was Sam Billings, who scored 105 runs in three matches with a high score of 87. Nicholas Pooran (70) and Joe Root (59) scored half-centuries this series.
Chris Gayle, who brought the “Gayle storm” to England in the ODI series, played two T20Is this series and scored 20 runs. The veteran batsman had played his role in the ODI series, but the likes of Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, and Darren Bravo failed miserably with the bat.
Shimron Hetmyer had a poor series
After Hope’s magnificent 2018 in white-ball cricket, he lacked consistency. This T20I series may have raised questions about his position in the T20 team; he scored 13 runs in three matches batting at the top of the order. Bearing the tag of the most exciting batsman on the globe, Hetmyer had a poor showing with the bat and an ordinary time in the field. He scored 32 runs in this series at an average of 10.66 with a high score of 14, batting at number three.
The famous Ian Bishop line will forever live in the Caribbean: “Carlos Brathwaite remember the name, history for the West Indies”. Post those monumental four sixes, Brathwaite continued to struggle. Brathwaite, who was stripped of his captaincy this series, scored 10 runs in three innings and grabbed two wickets for 66 runs in the eight overs he bowled in the series.
Darren Bravo, who is known as the clean striker of the ball in Caribbean Premier League (CPL), had similar numbers as Hetmyer this T20I series. He scored 32 runs at an average of 10.66. The number one all-rounder in the longer formats of the game, Holder had an ordinary T20I series. Prior to this series, Holder has been struggling to make the T20 team and he was given the captaincy for his solid performances in the other two formats. This series loss may have raised eyebrows for Windies to rethink their T20 team selection in the future.
