Perhaps one has had enough of calling the West Indies ¡°dark horses¡± of world cricket. Unless we were to make one of the most beautiful sports in the world a contest that highlights the colour of skin, there¡¯s nothing dark about the West Indies anymore.?
Gayle, agreed, is touching 40 but is in fine touch. The other evening, against Australia, he was already taking out the pace attack having announced his intentions with a 34-ball-50 against Pakistan in the game before. In Darren Bravo, there¡¯s a solid middle-order batsman, someone who has not spared the likes of Steyn, Tahir or Coulter-Nile.
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Lara¡¯s cousin is perhaps the scorer of the most under-appreciated fifty by a Windies batsman in a World Cup. Remember his 73 in New Delhi?
Moreover, in Roach¡¯s experience and Gabriel and Thomas¡¯ pace, there¡¯s an interesting medium pace troika that¡¯s gaining significantly by an in-form Cottrell. The lover of the game who followed the left-armer¡¯s bowling would¡¯ve wanted to offer him the salute that he so joyously celebrates his wickets with.
Then there¡¯s Shimron Hetmyer, who may not be an ideal author of a book on shot-selection but has hit 4 ODI centuries already in only 26 innings. And the ball, as they say, remains hit when he hits them. With Lewis, the only West Indian batsman in the line-up thus far to score 2 hundreds in T20Is, apart from Gayle, their batsmen seem untroubled and set.?
Above all, in Shai Hope, the man who featured in ODI cricket¡¯s highest opening-run stand of 365(against Ireland), there¡¯s a reason for West Indies to not shy anymore from hoping.
After spending decades playing virtually mindless cricket, their game plunging further into a state of decline since Lara¡¯s exit in 2007, it is now that their game has begun to take shape, finally.?
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So just when the news of Andre Russell, a two time World-Cup winner (2012 and 2016 World T20s) returning to the squad arrived, the Jamaican having taken IPL 2019 by storm, there was little surprise that West Indies were being touted for big things.
And little did they surprise, crushing Pakistan in their campaign opener, their batsmen and bowlers hardly breaking into a sweat.
But all that said, let us also not suffer from being irrational in our appreciation of Caribbean exuberance. They aren¡¯t the most dangerous team going around either. Consider a simple situation. What if Gayle and Hope are to depart early in a contest, how often have the likes of Hetmyer, Bravo and Russell won them games single-handedly?
While Russell brings nearly unquestionable fitness on the turf and with it, great agility and power, would you sit back in peace placing your bets on him against a Rashid Khan, Chahal, Bumrah, or the likes of Shakib and Sodhi?
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Sixes fly from the meat of this mighty all-rounder's bat akin to bullets in a John Wick franchise. Boundaries do seem shorter and fielders often desire (secretly) to trade places with spectators when Russell gets going.
But despite having someone as levelheaded as Jason Holder, 125 wickets from 95 bowling innings, including 2 fifers, and 9 fifties and nearly 1700 runs from 78 batting innings, can the West Indians dominate regularly?
Not many teams can boast of having the kind of enigma the West Indies so naturally exude. Not only have they re-announced themselves to the world cricket displaying that flair for fight that you saw not only when they beat Root and Cook¡¯s England, having Anderson in it at their home ground in Barbados in 2015 but also when Shai Hope broke a 127-year record of being the only batsman to hit back-to-back hundreds at The Oval on their tour to England in 2017.
While surely the spark of a revival was ignited when under Sammy, who has a stadium against his name, the Windies would win two T20 World Cups with Dwayne ¡°Champion¡± Bravo and Pollard playing key duties, a new team has emanated from persistent troubles, some of which go down to biased selection strategies and others from pure incompetence.
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And it¡¯s this new face of the Caribbean side, Hetmyer, Hope, Thomas, Gabriel, Cottrell, Pooran, one that¡¯s regrouping with the lost identity called West Indies having been mediocre for an onerous period of struggle, specifically from 2008 until 2013. Interestingly, it was during this calamitous phase while they were beaten by Bangladesh (when Windies toured them) and when they were hammered by an equally inconsistent Pakistan (who toured them in 2013), that they¡¯d taste their first major win, beating Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
All that said, the West Indies, once the world-beaters and currently, a powerful wagon visibly on its way up to what can only be called a stiff climb up may want to tread cautiously.
While they are aware that in a Russell and Hetmyer there¡¯s dynamism and in Gayle and Holder, the much-needed experience, they cannot afford to let their mischievous aura define them, not least, in the world cup.?
Can they?
Similarly, there¡¯s a little sense in anticipating that Holder, the understated gem of Caribbean cricket that he is, can swing a magic wand and turn his rising force into being world-beaters. This is unless world cricket¡¯s best ODI sides, England and India, along with Australia and New Zealand sandbag massively.?
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So here¡¯s a humble submission.
This being a long tournament with West Indies yet to play massive contests against teams like South Africa, India, New Zealand, England and others, it¡¯s a bit too early to pass a ruling on their 2019 campaign.?
But from what we¡¯ve seen in the past half a decade, it does seem the men of brawn and bling, who ain¡¯t the most successful team today but surely play like champions on their day can unite the world in awe as only few can.
Forza, West Indies!