West Indies face to face with deep and dark Test Cricket crisis after latest impotent show in their ridiculous 27 all out.
After 27 all out, West Indies come face to face with deepening Test crisis.
Being bowled out for 27 is never a good time. For the West Indies, Monday at Sabina Park felt especially awful.
New Zealand’s 70-year record of 26 all out was in jeopardy at 11 for 6. There was a reasonable possibility that they would at least have someone to share their hat-trick with when Scott Boland took it. Few people will be cheering Sam Konstas on following his misfield across the Tasman.
Cricket West Indies has held an emergency meeting and invited a number of past greats to assist less than twenty-four hours later. However, there will be doubts about whether it will have any impact.
Even if Boland and Mitchell Starc were outstanding, the performance was terrible. They were unable to claim that anything took place during the night session. Their final performance of the series was the culmination of all concerns; in the first two Tests, there had been warning flags when their second innings quickly collapsed. There was a feeling that it would turn into a horror show inside six balls.
You can pardon John Campbell a little because he outswung Starc perfectly. Some gumption had been displayed by him in previous innings. You must also feel sorry for newcomer Kevlon Anderson, who is obviously agitated since he pads up to an inswinger before evaluating. After seeing Starc curve the ball late, Brandon King, who had played well, thought that a booming drive was the best course of action.
No one else averaged over 20, with the exception of Anderson Phillip, who played in just one match. King’s 75 was the highest individual score on either side and contributed to West Indies’ only half-century in the series.
Since February 2023, when Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Kraigg Brathwaite each scored hundreds in a 336-run partnership against Zimbabwe, the West Indies has had two hundreds: Justin Greaves against Bangladesh and Kavem Hodge against England. Although the West Indies’ batting has had several slumps over the past 25 years—they began the twenty-first century with totals of 54, 61, and 82 in 2000—this may be the lowest point.
Additionally, this performance coincides with discussions about the future organisation of Test cricket. The ICC’s annual summit in Singapore this week may propose some plans, but nothing has been determined yet. While it’s easy to get caught up in generalisations following incidents like Sabina Park, the format’s issues with the West Indies are just as serious as those facing any of the Full Members.
It must be questioned if one of the factors they are exploiting, the pitches, has gone too far in one direction. Nevertheless, Roston Chase claimed, with a grin, that the Jamaica pitch was the best of the three.
Playing to your strengths and taking advantage of a ball whizzing around is all well and good, but when your weakness is so great, it renders everything pointless. The West Indies, where more than one Test match has been played, has the lowest overall batting average since the beginning of 2023. The West Indies themselves have the lowest average for a home team throughout that time, a mere 18.39.
Although it is obvious that the issues in the West Indies extend beyond the 22 yards, coach Daren Sammy discussed the Caribbean’s surface conditions and how batters, especially at the local level, cannot trust their performances following the second Test in Grenada. Chase countered that it was challenging to accurately evaluate players because every team had a few talented bowlers.
The West Indies’ upcoming away trips to India and New Zealand will probably put the hitters under a lot of pressure once more. Bangladesh is the location of their other away series in this WTC cycle. They will play Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, two teams they would think they can challenge with.
Following the hurried finish of the match and the completion of the presentations, Starc postponed his return to the Australian festivities in order to speak with Johann Layne, an uncapped West Indies fast who is considered a member of the next generation. Layne seemed to be soaking up every nugget of advice from one of the greatest players in history. One can only hope that he will have an opportunity to play against Australia in the future and be a member of a competitive Test team.