Warriors lacked batting depth this season — says Leon Johnson

The Guyana Amazon Warriors left the cricketing world in a state of shock and mourning when the St Lucia Zouks steamrolled them for a mere 55 runs in a semi-final match, and caused them to be unceremoniously bundled out of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020 tournament.

The microscope, periscope and telescope have since been trained on the team, and many have been left with more questions than answers.
Guyana Jaguars captain Leon Johnson, one equipped with a wealth of cricketing knowledge, has opined that the Warriors’ batting this season lacked depth. In his virtual appearance on the recent Mason and Guest show, Johnson said that, in a semi-final game, he was expecting the Warriors to peak, especially at this stage of the tournament.

“To get bowled out for 55 is disheartening, but that’s the game,” Johnson said. “Guyana have been lacking batting depth in this tournament. If you look at Keemo Paul batting at six, I personally feel it is too high for him (because of) the way he plays. So, I think they lacked batting depth, the tail is long,” Johnson advanced.
Johnson gave the team a passing grade in his overall assessment of the tournament, considering the pandemic.

In regard to the pitches, Johnson said the situation was a bit tough, especially since the Queen’s Park pitch favoured spinners. Nevertheless, he firmly believes the batsmen could have given a better account of themselves, although the spinner made full use of conditions that were favourable to them.

The left-hander expressed disappointment with the performances of some International players and some local ones. “I thought they would have led by example and the others would follow, but it did not happen. TKR international players have done very well, and that gave the young players confidence.”
For the Warriors this season, Shimron Hetmyer was the leading batsman with 267 runs, while Nicholas Pooran scored 245 runs and produced the tournament’s only century this season. Ross Taylor, who came to play the role of Shoaib Malik, scored only 164 runs at a poor average of 23.42; while Chandrapaul Hemraj made 140 runs.
Last year’s breakout star Brandon King had failures all around. He produced only 116 runs, although he played in all 11 matches.
Sherfane Rutherford came into this tournament with the stated intention to finish off games in the lower-middle order. He played only seven matches and scored 39 runs; hence Keemo Paul was asked to bat higher than usual. Paul made 77 runs, but that was below par. (Brandon Corlette)