THE West Indies selectors have got it wrong by not choosing middle order batsman Roston Chase for the World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe, says Barbados Pride coach Emmerson Trotman.
Trotman said Chase was a superior batsman to most of the players who had been selected and he hoped the mistake was corrected as soon as possible.
“I believe that Chase should be in the West Indies [One-Day] side. He can bat better than half of the [players) squad,” declared Trotman following the final of the West Indies Super50 Festival at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua last Saturday night.
Chase won the Richie Richardson Most Outstanding Award in the just concluded tournament after amassing 558 runs at an average of 62.00 and a strike rate of 91.92.
“He is a good player. He understands what is going on; so I think that is an error on the West Indies’ selectors’ part. Chase should be in the squad easily. There’s no doubt about that at all, so I hope they will reconsider and draft him in at some stage,”added Trotman.
The tall right-hander made a maiden List A hundred of 105 versus English county Hampshire and hit four half-centuries, along with an unbeaten 85, against the same opponents.
Chase, who smashed 81 off Kent in the first semi-final in Antigua, made his One-Day debut last year but was dropped after just eight matches in which he mustered 68 runs at an average of 13.60.
“Roston is a very serious guy. He is totally focused and he works hard on his game. You can see the improvement in his game, and that is what the West Indies team need right now: a player like Roston Chase. He is batting well and he understands batting.
“A lot of people seem to think that Roston doesn’t bat quick enough, but if you follow his game, you will see he scores very quickly. He scores easily, so it looks very simple. But you need a solid player like himin the West Indies set-up,” Trotman said.
“I will even go as far as saying someone also like Kraigg Brathwaite. You can’t have those two players knocking around and not being involved in the West Indies’ senior One-Day team. We cannot continue to have six or seven guys in the West Indies’ batting line-up who play the same way.
“You got to have some kind of balance in that batting line-up and that’s where Roston and Kraigg come in,” the former Barbados middle order batsman contended.
Trotman said Brathwaite knew how to make runs in all formats of the game, whether it was Test matches or the limited-overs cricket.
“He is a smart cricketer. He knows how to make hundreds. He understands batting and that is important as a batsman. Kraigg has improved his range of stroke-play. He has improved his way of thinking in One-Day cricket and he understands the game very well,” noted Trotman.
“Kraigg can top his game when he has to. There are good balls that you have to defend. You can’t become too attacking. It’s no point playing five and six shots an over. That just don’t work. If you play two or three nice shots in an over, nothing is wrong with that and Kriagg can do that quite easily. Roston does it with ease[as well],” he asserted.
