@NilayShah60
It's not a bad thing on the selectors' part to keep Brathwaite on as captain. He is captain of the Barbados regional team in the FC competition and has been so for years. He's also coming off of the successful tour of Bangladesh, where he made some excellent decisions in the field with respect to bowling changes and field placements. He performed adequately with the bat, nothing spectacular though. Holder et al opted out of the tour, nothing (particularly) wrong with that, but it would really have been unfair to demote Brathwaite back down to vice-captain upon Holder's return after the sort of leadership he displayed in what was not an easy tour by any means. And that's one of the things - at the time you'd have to say that Bangladesh and a full-strength West Indies team were about evenly matched. Remove some key players and be forced to debut guys who were on the fringes for some time and you'd tip the scales in Bangladesh's favour by some way. We weren't exactly as far down as underdogs in that series, but after the ODIs were over, very few people were expecting us to win. A solid showing is all we could have hoped for. Remember in the first Test, they scored something over 400 in their first innings before we just about managed to avoid the follow-on target. The pressure was definitely on Brathwaite from the very start. And to his credit, neither he nor the team buckled under the pressure.
He has the experience and the support of the players. The bulk of this team were under him in Bangladesh and therefore know his captaincy style, especially those who either debuted or were still new at Test level. It was never going to be easy for them to learn how to play under a different player, no matter what anyone says about professionals knowing how to cope with anything that comes their way, etc. Yes Brathwaite, at the time, was thought to just be a placeholder captain until Holder was available again, but the performances in Bangladesh showed that Brathwaite offers something that was missing from our cricket. Whatever that something is...I have no idea, but whatever it is, it works.
Plus, Holder and Brathwaite go back a long way. Brathwaite was Holder's vice-captain for a long time before Roston Chase took over that spot. They both play for Barbados (where Brathwaite captains Holder when the latter isn't somewhere playing franchise cricket). They both came up through age-group cricket pretty much together. So it's not really like there's any animosity, at least on the surface.
As far as Holder goes, it's not easy being captain, legitimately opting out of a tour, and then you're no longer captain. However, it might not be a bad thing. Holder's captaincy has, to me, become reactive rather than proactive. I've often seem an unwillingness to try different things from him. Too many times there's a sense of waiting for the opposition to make a mistake rather than him actively probing and searching for wickets. Now whenever he went on the attack, it was genuinely something good to see, but it didn't happen often enough for me. That's not the same Holder I remembered when he was fresh into his captaincy career. (Just an example, in the last New Zealand tour, how the hell did he not bowl Shannon Gabriel more? Williamson was being Williamson, but come on...)
I wouldn't say the captaincy put extra pressure on Holder in a negative way. If anything, the spotlight being on him gave him the impetus to perform. When he took up the captaincy role, many fans would still remember Darren Sammy, who for much of his captaincy career had a lot of concerns aimed at his selection (sometimes unfairly). It all boiled down to one thing - the only reason Sammy even had a spot on the team was because he was the captain. Holder wouldn't have wanted those same concerns surrounding him, and he's pretty much done more than enough to keep them away.
His main role should primarily be as a first-change bowler, something he's done consistently to good effect. His bowling average is somewhere around 27, can't recall offhand how many wickets he has, but it's definitely over 100. That's an excellent average for a strike bowler, moreso for a first-change like he is. And I think that he has it in him to get that down closer to 25. He has the height that gets him good bounce, he's always pretty accurate, and he can move the ball. One of the things about being a bowling captain is that you have a tendency to either under- or over-bowl yourself, and both things have happened to him in the past, so being able to not worry about that is a plus.
As for his batting, he's always been handy. Despite a double and a couple other centuries, I wouldn't call him an outright batsman yet. He can be, though, I think he averages about 30 with the bat and can better that. Looking at his likely batting position, he's probably going to be partnering guys like da Silva and Blackwood. Two very good batsmen and who he'll have to be adaptable with. For Blackwood, a naturally aggressive batsman, Holder will have to hold his end and just work the field. For da Silva, more of a grafter who plays time, he has to be the one who does much of the scoring. Then he potentially has Alzarri, who is becoming a handy batsman in his own right, and then the rest of the tail. There were questions around his batting position in the past, where a lot of analysts and commentators thought he was batting too low. With this potential team though, 7 is probably right where he should be. Maybe...maybe he can come in ahead of da Silva, but I wouldn't count on it.
The rest of the team, they pretty much picked themselves except for one glaring act of stupidity. John Campbell's name is still on the team sheet. Huh? Then again, we've been over this issue and it's probably pretty much for lack of other options. Shouldn't be that way for too much longer though. Shai Hope is red hot, at least in the shorter format. And he definitely wants to get his name back into the mix for Test cricket again. So hopefully later on in the year we'll see Hope playing in whites again. Good to see Bravo back in the team, but his spot in the playing XI is by no means sure, and in fact, if it was my decision, I'd not play him in the first Test. He has form from the Super50 and the ODIs behind him, but I'd leave him for the second game. Whoever doesn't perform in the first one, then he swaps for them. Unless...hmm...unless you bench Campbell and open with Bravo? There's an option, not a bad one either. A number 3 is essentially a third opener, and often is out there before the shine is gone. It's something to think about, at least.
The limited-overs pitches were good for batting, but the Test pitch is supposed to have more grass on it for the seamers. (Remember: the entire tour takes place in one country due to Covid, and the Coolidge ground, formerly the Stanford Ground, isn't Test match standard...so the Sir Viv stadium hosted the final two ODIs and will host both Tests. This is after hosting half of the Super50 tournament. This ground has pretty much been in use since January, and it has held up extremely well. The nostalgia in me really would have loved to have seen the old Antigua Recreation Ground host a game, but last I heard, it's not exactly fit for...pretty much anything at this time.) Wouldn't need the two spinners, so between Cornwall and Worrican, one will probably sit out. Probably Cornwall, since they enjoy dropping him after an excellent performance in the subcontinent. In fact, they wouldn't have played either spinner if Chase had made the squad. The fact that two specialist spinners are in the team means that they're looking to play at least one. That's good, because while Bonner and Brathwaite can bowl, two of them don't add up to one proper spinner.
They'll likely play the four seamers. If they do decide for three seamers and the two spinners, then Joseph sits out. But I don't see that happening. It's even less likely that they'll do three seamers, one spinner, and the extra batsman, in which case Bravo plays and Joseph and Cornwall go out. I think they'll go with the four seamers and one spinner, one batsman and one spinner miss out.
We actually have competition for the middle order. Interesting. Roston Chase, Chamarh Brooks, Shimron Hetmeyer, those names spring to mind. Good. Competition for places will only bring out the best in everyone. Guys who aren't selected will push for selection, and guys in the team will play to remain there.
One omission that has me slightly concerned is Shane Dowrich. Unlike the others, who opted out of Bangladesh due to fatigue over Covid-related restrictions, it was reported that he opted out due to personal reasons. He did have a finger injury during the New Zealand tour, but that should have long since healed. Haven't heard a thing about him since. I don't like that at all. Hopefully he just needs some time away from everything and he'll return before long. But the gloves are on good hands at the moment, so da Silva has the chance to make his spot as permanent as possible.
