Bad Wickets Can Often Be Perceived As Good

Garfield Robinson argues that England’s tour of the West Indies is a refreshing shot in the arm for Test cricket with the return of a classic contest between bat and ball

- Garfield Robinson

Apart from the third dayof the Barbados Testwhen not a singlewicket fell, when JasonHolder and Shane Dowrich played with assurance and panache for most of the day, batting during the first two Tests of England’s 2019 Caribbean visit has been a hazardous occupation. This has been especially true for batsmen of the touring England team who were bundled out for 77 in the first innings of the first game. Their subsequent totals have been 245, 187 and 145.

Such paltry returns from a side with Joe Root -- one of the best of this generation – along with a number of other capable, forthright batsmen such as Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler, is cause for concern. Were the conditions and the bowling during the first two matches too challenging? Or did the Englishmen simply underperform?

Both could be true. The West Indies batsmen had their fair share of difficulty along the way, yet they compiled significantly higher totals. They largely rose to and met the challenge presented to them. Their English counterparts, on the other hand, were found seriously wanting.

Nobody in their right cricketing mind would think the West Indies team the equal of their much higher-ranked opponents. Though England have not defeated them in the Caribbean in 15 years, they were rightly regarded as favourites to win the series. Such a walloping, therefore, is something of a surprise. It’s as if the glory days came rocketing back again; as if the team of “mediocre” players, as referred to by Sir Geoffrey Boycott, was replaced by the legends who regularly administered floggings to the teams for which Boycott opened the batting in the early eighties.