The last time West Indies played Australia in a test match, they were trounced by 87 runs – which helped the Australia retain the Frank Worrell Trophy ; the last time these two teams met in a one day international – in the Champions Trophy - Australia managed to win quite easily despite some early hiccups; and the last time these two teams met in a T20 international, Australia were trounced by the West Indies – or rather Chris Gayle. The way things are looking right now for the West Indies, the above trend may continue except for the T20 internationals. They have of course received a huge shot in the arm with the return of their regular players after the contracts fiasco.
How well these players are able to gel together remains to be seen. If one were to go by their performance in their tour match against Queensland, then the usual suspects – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Dwayne Bravo – look to be in good form with the bat. But then again, one doubts whether any of the bowlers from the Queensland lineup will make it to the Australian team.
The bowling does look a bit dodgy, and these set of bowlers will have to come up with something special to dismiss an Australian line-up consisting of the likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, and Marcus North to name a few. What’s worse is that the Aussies will be desperate to stamp their supremacy after losing the Ashes. While this may be a big deterrent for the West Indies, it may also prove to be a blessing in disguise. The Aussie teams have shown in the past that they come at their opponents really hard if they have suffered a defeat. And in these circumstances they may make some mistakes in their over enthusiasm.
However, these mistakes are very few, and the West Indies will not only have to keep their eyes, they will have to wear thick rimmed glasses to spot these mistakes. Eventually, it is all going to boil down to how they manage to combine as a team after what they have been through in the last few months. It will be upto their manager Joel Garner to make sure that he instills in them the same pride that was visible in the West Indies’ teams of the 70’s and 80’s.
The Australians on the other hand look as prepared as they can be. They have won the Champions Trophy, defeated India in India, and have discovered a fantastic talent in Doug Bollinger who has been included in the first test. The only thing that they will be worried about is that their performance in the Test arena in the past couple of years hasn’t been too convincing. Though of course, the present West Indian setup does not seem too likely to trouble them.
The main worry for the Australians will be their bowling setup. Though Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, and Nathan Hauritz have improved leaps and bounds in the past few seasons, doubts still persist over their ability to capture 20 Test wickets consistently. This series may well prove to be the watershed series for Australia as they seek to stabilize their Test squad before beginning their quest to capture the number one rankings again.
As Shane Warne commented recently, that there’s a certain period of time when one team is in transition, after that the only way they can convince their fans to support them is by giving results. The Australian batting on the other hand looks in good shape with Shane Watson occupying the opener’s slot and looking solid. This will be the same line up that got 8 hundreds in the Ashes.
The biggest headache for Australia in the test series would be how they surrendered key sessions of the Test matches to England, thus losing the series despite being the better team. But looking at the West Indies team, it looks like this will be the perfect time for the Aussies to wash off their sins. The fielding is going to be the main difference between the two teams. While the Australian fielding has been showing signs of cracking at times, the West Indies will do well to remember that fielding played an important part in the Australian victory against India recently.
How do the squads balance against each other? Australia definitely are the better test team here. Their bowling easily out matches the West Indies’ bowling attack. Another plus for the Aussies is that 2 out of 3 games are at Brisbane and Perth respectively, which means that the Australian attack will have ample chances to display their wares during these games. Though West Indies do have the bowlers who, if they do not get carried away by the pace and the bounce on offer, can do some damage themselves; especially Gavin Tonge who was very impressive during the recent ICC Champions Trophy. The batting looks good for the West Indies with the return of Chris Gayle. And Chanderpaul still looks quite a sticky customer. But the rest of the batting barring Sarwan and Bravo looks very brittle, even this duo looks susceptible when it comes to batting for long hours.
The Aussie batting on the other hand looks strong and raring to go. West Indies are a bit more balanced when it comes to the one dayers; but the Aussies should be able to dust them off without any major problems. It is in the Twenty20 arena where the West Indies could really cause some problems for the Aussies. They have Dwayne Bravo and Ravi Rampaul who did so well for Trinidad & Tobago during the recently concluded Champions League Twenty20 in India. Add Gayle to the setup with a few utility players and you have got a squad which can give the best teams a run for their money.
So how will the series turn out to be? Aussies will end up winning the Test series and the one dayers, but will have to struggle to get past the West Indies in the T20s. If West Indies really want to have a fighting chance in this tour, then they only have to look at how T&T competed during the CL T20. They were fearless, competitive, and yet enjoyed themselves. In short, they will have to relearn how to play the game in the Calypso style. If they can do that, one might see some honor being restored to the West Indian game.
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