No Gayle,WI bank on rusty stars in T20s
Windies will miss Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo besides the swashbuckling opener in series vs India
MUMBAI: West Indies, on Monday, named their 15-member squads for the upcoming ODI and T20I series in India, picking a string of uncapped players but will miss their most experienced man, Chris Gayle.
Having lost the first Test in Rajkot by an innings, West Indies need to put up a good show before they head to Bangladesh and will rely on the last leg of the India tour — the T20s — where the two-time world champions and currently seventh in the ICC rankings are expected to compete.
While India are the overwhelming favourites to inflict a clean sweep in the two-Test series as well as in the 50-over format, it’s the three-match T20I series that might be termed an “equal contest on paper”.
The Caribbean team welcomed back Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell in the T20 squad but the likes of Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo are yet again missing amid tension between the West Indies Board and the players. While Pollard’s last T20 for West Indies had come last September, Darren Bravo has not played international cricket since 2016. His last T20I was way back in 2014. Russell, however, missed out on selection for the ODIs since he’s nursing an injury but is expected to be fit by November once the three-match T20 series gets underway. Among the three debutants, Oshane Thomas is in prime form, having picked 18 wickets in 10 matches to finish as the second-highest wicket-taker in Caribbean Premier League.
GAYLE WILL BE MISSED
Gayle, the proven match-winner for the West Indies in shorter formats, is not a regular member of the side anymore. With his help the Caribbean side did make it to the next year’s World Cup, but a legend in the shortest form — only batsman to have scored 11,000 or more runs in T20s — has not been able to help his team as much. Since the conclusion of 2016 ICC World T20, Gayle has played a mere six of the 24 T20s West Indies have played.
The impact has been alarming — the West Indies have lost 13 and won only nine since their win in WT20 final in April 2016 over England. In the ODI format as well, since the 2015 World Cup, West Indies have a dismal record of having won just 13 out of 49 games while losing 32.
However, with Gayle in the scheme of things, the side has won five matches out of the 15 in which he has taken part. Gayle had scored 165 runs in six matches of the 2019 ICC World Cup qualifiers.
However, the absence of stars like Gayle and Narine, and the national side’s poor run of form also provide a perfect platform for youngsters to thrive with less than eight months to go for the World Cup in UK.
Having scraped through to the quadrennial event via the qualifiers, the two-time champions will be expected to fare better leading up to the World Cup.