Previewing the 1st West Indies vs Australia test with winds of change in Barbados as Chase era begins for WI.
As a new era of test captaincy begins for 33-year-old Roston Chase, here’s previewing the 1st test between WI and Australia.
Beautiful Barbados is often hit by the northeast trade winds, but as the West Indies squad and Australia start a new World Test Championship cycle in Bridgetown, the winds of change have swept across both countries.
After Kraigg Brathwaite resigned, the West Indies started the cycle with a new skipper in Roston Chase. The team hasn’t played Test cricket in Pakistan since January. Amazingly, Chase hasn’t participated in a Test match since March 2023, missing the last 13 West Indies games.
He is in charge of a new team that, for the first Test, includes Brandon King making his debut and John Campbell and Shai Hope (the latter as wicketkeeper) making their first appearances since 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Despite playing in each of the last three West Indies series, veteran Kemar Roach was completely left off the roster. Selectors held hard after dropping Joshua da Silva in Pakistan, therefore he was unable to receive a recall despite his Gabba heroics against Australia and his subsequent run-scoring rampage in the West Indies Championship. Only Brathwaite, Justin Greaves, and Jomel Warrican survived the previous Test match for the West Indies.
After the disappointment of losing to South Africa in the WTC final just two weeks earlier, Australia’s “reset” is not nearly as drastic, but it is noteworthy by their standards. They will start an XI without Steven Smith or Marnus Labuschagne on the roster for the first time since December 2018.
After consistently ranking in Australia’s top three for 53 Test matches in a row, Labuschagne was ultimately omitted for the first time in six years after the selectors lost patience with him. Prior to his horrific finger injury that prevented him from playing in the first Test of this series, Smith had played 51 consecutive games. He has the opportunity to come back for the second.
In an effort to shift the team’s age distribution, Australia announced five days in advance that Sam Konstas and Josh Inglis will play in Barbados. However, they will only field two players under the age of thirty.
Since Australia has only lost one of their last seven Test matches and did not lose a multi-Test series during the previous WTC cycle, it is logical that they have not made significant changes in response to Lord’s. Australia rarely conducts full-scale reboots. However, with away trips to South Africa and India in this WTC schedule, as well as an Ashes series later in the year, they cannot afford to start the new cycle slowly with an inexperienced top six and an ageing attack.