West Indies: The team to beat in five years?

[ManFan]

So WI just beat India in a close encounter courtesy of a 5-wicket-haul from their captain, Jason Holder. Holder has to be admired for
the way he has led the team in the past few years. I firmly believe that the only thing holding WI back from being competetive is the lack of a proper batsmen and two bowlers (one fast and one spinner). Bishoo is too old and although Joseph and Holder are good, they need a third seamer to accompany them. What West Indies need to do is get another 6'5 back-of-a-length bower to maintain pressure after Holder and Joseph finish their opening 5 overs. Combine that with an accurate off-spinner and a strong top order and the remedy is clear. It only requires some new success hungry faces and you have a recipe for winning (Pakistan at CT). Can WI make a comeback and inspire themselves to regain some lost pride? The cricketing world needs a competetive WI for it to flourish.

 

[Justcrazy]

The administration has to improve , WI has enough talent to make them competitive.

 

[troodon]

West Indies are a mediocre team and with their main players not playing, they will remain mediocre for another decade. The new talent is no where near as talented as WI used to produce back in 70's and 80's.

Chase is their best player and Shai hope is decent. That's about it.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

I wish

 

[Hasan123]

In tests they will be a competitive side, our recent test series showed that. In Odis I think they may struggle.

Hopefully they can get Russell and Darren Bravo back into there odi team though.

 

[Rayyman]

They always manage to win the odd game against a top side. Just need more consistency.

The main reason for their poor performances is their batting. Nobody steps up. Every game I see from them there are new batsman playing. The bowling is not bad.

 

[Billy1999]

I don't know there whole batting line up has just 2 hundreds between them,Windies is a decent team if they back a team which admirably they have and I give credit to them.

If your a player one could only wish he could play for the Windies as even an average player gets 10 matches

1:Kyle hope
2:Evin Lewis
3:Shai hope
4:Roston chase
5:Sunil Ambris
6:Jason Mohammed
7:Jason Holder
8:Ashley nurse
9evendra Bishoo
10:Alzarri Joseph
11:Shanon Gabriel

I would take this team for the next 2/3 years

For the betterment of Windies cricket however I don't see them improving,They have no one that is currently good enough to average 35 in FC and List A cricket without being picked


We should be thankful for our team

Azhar
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Malik
Sarfraz
Imad
Shadab
Hassan
Amir
Junaid

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Their test team is becoming real solid.

 

[Chrish]

They will never recover in test format..

 

[shane]

A single win against India and suddenly WI are the "team to beat" in five years, and the next five years are going to be a "golden" era for Pakistan cricket. Looks like people here have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to India.

 

[ManFan]

Oh yes. Because Indians are superior in every format against all teams, correct? I guess that's why spectators at the CT Final don't even mention it happened. In fact it hurts them so much to lose against mediocre teams like Pakistan that they celebrate the hockey team on Twitter or have the government blame players on fixing. Shut your trap if you don't have anything nice to say at all young blood.

 

[Markhor]

The ODI team has not won a series against a top side since 2012 against New Zealand and recently shelled an ODI to Afghanistan so I don't see there being an ODI revival.

As for Tests, I fear the West Indies tour of England this summer could be one of the most one-sided Wisden Trophy series we've ever seen especially since it looks unlikely Darren Bravo will feature.

The top order is brittle, we saw how they struggled against the new Dukes ball vs Pakistan in the Caribbean so I expect a similar struggle against Anderson, Broad and Woakes. There's a case to promote Roston Chase to 3 or 4 as he's one of their better batsman. Hetmyer has potential but is too loose outside off.

The bowling in England ought to be a four man pace attack of Gabriel, Joseph, Cummins and Holder. Bishoo can be a threat but he doesn't trust his googly and is prone to bowling one bad ball an over. If it was up to me I'd reconcile with Darren Bravo at once and play this for the 1st Test at Edgbaston:

Brathwaite, Powell, Bravo, Chase, Hope, Ambris, Dowrich, Holder, Gabriel, Joseph, Cummins.

As ever, if there's to be a revival of WI cricket there needs to be radical reforms administratively. There is a new coach in Stuart Law, new director of cricket Jimmy Adams and new CEO in Johnny Grave but dictator Dave Cameron is still calling the shots.

 

[Rana]

People are not understanding some things here.

The WICB is clearly taking a solid stance against those players who give preference to money over country. There is a reason why they have an ordinary team because they want to tell the youth of the country that its about time playing for your country matters more than playing for money, this culture was clearly creeping in with the senior players. The reason why this board gets so much criticism is simply because this current team isnt winning on a regular basis, and if they were than the board would look like a million dollars instead of how it is currently being criticised. The IPL and other ATM T20 leagues have affected West Indies the most, its about time they did something about it. I support their stance and yes, if this current set up works hard together, it will only get stronger and produce good results

 

[wrongun]

Problem is they don't have a strong top order, haven't had a strong top order for 20 years and don't have the standard of pitches at home to produce a strong batting lineup anymore.

Add to that they have a grand total of one (barely) test standard bowler in Holder. They have no-one else proven at test level to bowl fast or spin and no experience to bring them along.

They'll be in a dogfight with Afghanistan & Ireland for spots 10, 11 & 12 within 5 years.