FEW?CRICKET?TEAMS have come from behind to win a Test series. Denesh Ramdin and his West Indies team have the chance against New Zealand this weekend at Kensington Oval to create their own history.
It would be a a huge fillip to a Test side that has been in the wilderness for a long time. If the West Indies were to prevail, it would be mean they would have passed the test of character with flying colours.
This victory was not only important for Ramdin, after the disappointment of losing his first match as skipper in four days, but for a team languishing at eighth in the Test rankings. The West Indies’ ten-wicket win was their first Test victory against a team other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe since August 2012, when they beat New Zealand in Jamaica by five wickets.
The West Indies’ attack has been steady but far from incisive or probing, the events of the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad, providing ample proof where they were made to toil to remove the lower order. That’s why it is unfortunate that the West Indies will not be at full strength for this crucial third Test which starts tomorrow on a ground they have had 22 victories.
It would have been pleasing to have gone into this Test match with off-spinner Sunil Narine, who would have brought a dimension to an attack that has been toothless at times.
An inflexible and rigid West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)?has stuck to its ruling that all players must have met the June 1 deadline to join the training camp ahead of the Tests. Narine, like most professional cricketers, picked sure rather than unsure and opted to stay with the Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL final.
Richard Pybus, the WICB director of cricket, said the new “West Indies First” policy required players to make themselves available for team’s preparatory camps.
Rules are supposed to provide a measure of guidance and order but they are not be unyielding and unsympathetic to the extent that they fuel more harm than good.
Once Narine is available, he should be considered and it is a shame that players of lesser talent will be on show this weekened.
The 26-year-old Narine has played just six Tests and has a lot prove in the five-day format, but 18 of his 21 Test wickets have been against the Black Caps, New Zealand, and he would have been a major asset to the West Indies at the Oval.
It was heartening that skipper Ramdin has been candid enough to criticise his own captaincy. He was indeed short of the mark at times, tending to be too negative in his field placing especially during that frustrating ninth wicket stand of 99 between BJ?Watling and Mark Craig.
He never put Watling under any pressure, allowing him to collect free runs, and chose only to attack Craig.
The move backfired with both men growing in confidence.
A modest attack and a defensive attack will not win too many matches and Ramdin must know that he and his team will have to be more positive in the future.
Certainly, the batting with Kirk Edwards setting the tone for Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo, had the right approach in Trinidad.
Chris Gayle, who is now only four short of becoming only the second man in history to smash 100 sixes in Test cricket, was on fire in the second innings when the West Indies chased a small total and the pressure was off.
The pressure will certainly be on Gayle this weekend as he has never scored a Test hundred at Kensington where he averages just 26 in 11 matches. He will want to make amends.
