Five players West Indies will look to in Australia series
Holder will be key - but which Samuels will turn up?
Tuesday 8 December 2015 14:31, UK
West Indies have endured a tumultuous year.
Coach Phil Simmons was suspended and then reinstated after questioning selection decisions and spinner Sunil Narine has been banned from bowling in international cricket after being adjudged to have an illegal action.
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The Caribbean side's less-than-stellar ODI displays have also led to them failing to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy, while they warmed up for their three-Test series against Australia in disastrous fashion with a 10-wicket defeat to an inexperienced Cricket Australia XI.
Unsurprisingly, Australia are expected to inflict a heavy defeat on the West Indies when the series commences this week - so who will the tourists look to for inspiration?
Here are our five Windies to watch…
Kraigg Brathwaite (opener)
The 23-year-old Barbadian offers an element of calm to an often frenetic West Indies team. An opening batsman in the mould of Alastair Cook as opposed to Chris Gayle - why is he now so far removed from the Test side, by the way? - Brathwaite has accumulated rather than smashed four hundreds and six fifties in his 24 Tests to date, with a best of 212 against Bangladesh. Australia didn't see the best of Brathwaite in the reverse series in the Caribbean earlier this year, when the right-hander's top score was 15, but tons against England in St George's and New Zealand in Port of Spain and a nuggety 106 in South Africa against an attack containing Messrs Steyn, Morkel and Philander demonstrate he can play. He can bowl a bit, too, Brathwaite taking an unexpected six-for against Sri Lanka in October.
Jason Holder (all-rounder)
West Indies would be in an even bigger hole it not for their skipper. Holder's second-innings 65 stopped the team's embarrassing loss to the aforementioned Cricket Australia XI being an innings defeat, while he displayed his batting skills and grit against England in the spring, when a defiant maiden Test century foiled Cook's men's push for victory in the first Test, a knock that turned out to be crucial as West Indies grabbed a series-drawing victory in the third Test. The side have failed to build on that since but Holder's qualities have seen him succeed Denesh Ramdin as Test skipper. Holder's form with bat and ball has been okay, as well; the Barbados man cracking a rapid 82 against Australia in Kingston and offering a consistent threat with his oft-underestimated seam.
Darren Bravo (batsman)
Comparisons between the younger Bravo and the legendary Brian Lara not only come about because they are left-handed batsmen with family ties - the pair, both born in Santa Cruz, Trinidad, are first cousins once removed - but also because they are left-handed batsmen of immense quality. Bravo can larrup it like Lara but has also shown he can dig in like the great man, with a 416-ball 218 against New Zealand a couple of years ago preceded by two tons in India in 2011 (166 in Mumbai, 136 in Kolkata) and followed by a responsible innings of 82 in May as West Indies earned that draw with England. Said 82 is Bravo's highest Test total of 2015, but he'll be hopeful of reaching three figures on the fast and bouncy tracks in Australia, a place where Brian Charles Lara smoked two double tons.
Marlon Samuels (batsman)
Samuels is West Indies cricket in a nutshell, capable of magnificence but prone to the odd howler. When Marlon's good he is very good - the Jamaican has seven Test hundreds to his name, putting him just one shy of the late, great Roy Fredericks, and a best of 260 - but when he's not so good or messing around, it can be hilarious. Samuels reviewed the most out lbw decision you will ever see when struck on the pads by James Anderson earlier this year - how very Shane Watson of him - but his most memorable act in that series, bar his 103 at St George's, was when he saluted Ben Stokes after the Durham dynamo was dismissed. Samuels, one of Wisden's cricketers of the year in 2013, a huge fan of Nasser Hussain and a lover of dogs, is not always consistent but he's never dull.
Jomel Warrican (spinner)
"Who?" you may ask and quite rightly, with the slow left-armer pretty much an unknown before he took 4-67 on his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo in October. The pitch may have aided him - Brathwaite did clean up in the second innings with 6-29 from 11.3 overs after all - but West Indies were impressed enough to take him down under. Warrican's first-class figures make neat reading - 78 wickets in 18 games at 17.92 with six five-fors thrown into the mix - and he is not afraid to move outside his comfort zone either, as proved by his successful 2011 in the salubrious surrounding of Sefton Park Cricket Club in Liverpool, when he claimed 45 league wickets and three fifties. One thing's for sure, you're not going to forget the name Jomel Warrican in a hurry, are you?
Watch day one of West Indies' three-Test series against Australia from 11.30pm, Wednesday, Sky Sports 2.
