Hope for hosts if we take them lightly again
HISTORY tells you England have found it almost impossible to win Test series in the Caribbean over the last 50 years. But the same was true in Sri Lanka and if they do the right things now they should replicate their emphatic win before Christmas. Even though it has become a common theme for us to say West Indies are not the force they were, they remain a difficult proposition at home and Jason Holder has built a decent team around him in the wake of losing many good players to franchise cricket. The last time England came here four years ago ECB chairman Colin Graves made the mistake of saying West Indies were ‘mediocre’ and they turned out to be better than that in a drawn series. They pinned his comments on their dressing room and were inspired by them. Many of those who pulled off that extraordinary win at Headingley two years ago when West Indies looked dead and buried, like Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite, remain in the team and have great memories of facing England. They will remember, too, that Joe Root set them 322 to win a second Test no one gave them a prayer of winning after being thrashed at Edgbaston, but chase it down they did. West Indies still have a very capable attack, with fast bowlers like Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and Alzarri Joseph, while Holder’s statistics with the ball are remarkable. Look out for the spinner Jomel Warrican, who took 31 wickets against the Lions last year. But it will only become a decent attack if West Indies can make big runs to put pressure on and this is where they might struggle. Hope, who scored those two brilliant hundreds in Leeds, has made just one half century in West Indies in five Test series and averaged 9.75 in the defeat in Bangladesh before Christmas. We saw in the warm-up games here that their back-up batting looks vulnerable, especially if England can keep swinging the Duke ball that will be used in this series. West Indies have won just four of their 14 Tests since Headingley but the worst thing Root could do is underestimate them because they remain a very proud cricketing force and there is nothing they would like more than to beat England again. A trip to the Caribbean remains one of the great experiences. My first tour as a senior England player was in 1990 under Graham Gooch when West Indies were still a great side and I will always remember how close we came to beating them. They still love their cricket in the Caribbean, no question about that. Cricket is in the soul of the Caribbean people, it remains in their blood. But England are on the up and as long as they are not complacent, as long as they play their best cricket as they did in Sri Lanka, then I can only see another away win.