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West Indies

The Rat

Striker
Have some talent don't they. I accept they are a very middling test side, and their record shows that, but I don\t accept they are "shite" as some people on here have said, they have a better attack than we had, and Bonner, Braithwaite and Da Silva batted brilliantly.

Anyone I was thinking they did that whole series without any of their white ball stars, in the IPL this week we have already seen Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Odean Smith and loads others, not to mention Andre Russell etc.

Are these always destined just to be white ball players? or surely could they have had red ball futures. Pooran and Hetmyer in particular have real class, thy arent just sloggers. You wonder if there is still a chance with the right set up, and an IPL window, for these lads to play red ball stuff.

People have been calling the death of cricket in Windies for a while but they are arguably producing more talent than they have for decades, its just getting funnelled off, understandably so, to where the money is.
 

Jayden Seales is only 20 and Da Silva 23. They both look like natural test players already.

Da Silva's century was one of the maturist knocks I've seen recently with the calm manner and cleverly managing the strike.
 
Kind of related but wanted to post this somewhere

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youtube is class like :cool:. From the outside looking in it seems like the politics of the Islands seem to be at peace at the moment too
 
What has surprised me the most during our last 3 series with them is how disciplined they have been. Plenty of batsmen grinding out runs and valuing their wicket rather than playing the old fashioned West Indian way of trying to dominate the bowlers from ball 1, and tight line and length being bowled.

They have some good players, some average players and some promising players even without the IPL lot. Their current side reminds me a bit of NZ in the late 90's. No real stars but becoming a solid unit.
 
What has surprised me the most during our last 3 series with them is how disciplined they have been. Plenty of batsmen grinding out runs and valuing their wicket rather than playing the old fashioned West Indian way of trying to dominate the bowlers from ball 1, and tight line and length being bowled.

They have some good players, some average players and some promising players even without the IPL lot. Their current side reminds me a bit of NZ in the late 90's. No real stars but becoming a solid unit.

I agree but my point is could a scenario happen when they get their IPL stars into the side

A dash of star quality in their middle order would transform their side and they have the raw talent outside the squad. They’d probably be useless initially mind as they’ve basically barely played red ball cricket in their lives
 
I agree but my point is could a scenario happen when they get their IPL stars into the side

A dash of star quality in their middle order would transform their side and they have the raw talent outside the squad. They’d probably be useless initially mind as they’ve basically barely played red ball cricket in their lives

I think it could be counter productive, there is clearly little appetite from the likes of Russell to apply themselves to the longer form of the game and as they seem to be a really well knit bunch at the moment. Russell is 34 next month and probably couldn't cope with the rigours of a 5 day game anyway.

Pooran and Hetmyer are exciting players though so if you could integrate at least one then they are likely to improve the team in the short term at least.
 
I think it could be counter productive, there is clearly little appetite from the likes of Russell to apply themselves to the longer form of the game and as they seem to be a really well knit bunch at the moment. Russell is 34 next month and probably couldn't cope with the rigours of a 5 day game anyway.

Pooran and Hetmyer are exciting players though so if you could integrate at least one then they are likely to improve the team in the short term at least.

Yeah I mean the younger lads

There’s loads in the IPL this year and I hadn’t even heard of some of them, and I like to think I’m a cricket nerd
 
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