ARE WE SEEING THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW WEST INDIES?

The West Indies dominated the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle and looked as though had it not been for rain, they would or could have stolen a win in this three-Test series.
The West Indies got a record-breaking 333 from former captain Chris Gayle and useful half centuries from Adrian Barath , (50) Darren Bravo (58) and Brendan Nash (64) as the West Indies compiled an impressive 580 for 9 declared.
Their bowlers – Kemar Roach and Shane Shillingford – also did well, bowling Sri Lanka out for 378 and enforcing a follow-on, had Sri Lanka at 241 for 4 in their second innings.
Roach and Shillingford accounted for 10 of the 14 Sri-Lankan wickets to fall and for the most part looked threatening enough.
But does this mean that the West Indies are on their way back to being a competitive Test team? It’s too early to tell.
The second Test has begun in Colombo and again the West Indies had Sri Lanka on the ropes early. Kemar Roach has already taken two of the three wickets to fall with his blistering pace and captain Darren Sammy made his first meaningful contribution with either bat or ball by taking the other.
The West Indies have seemingly carried over the momentum and confidence from the first Test and so far things seem to be going well.
But is this the beginning of a new era, a new dawn of a team that will contend and compete with the best in the world?
Well, we are seeing more consistent performances from the younger players. Roach has been consistently fast even though he is not yet the fully developed strike bowler. Sulieman Benn has improved significantly enough in the past year and has been the leading wicket taker in the team during that time.
What we are yet to see is a consistent opening partner for Chris Gayle opening the innings. Barath is back and seems to have picked up where he left off when he last played for the West Indies when he scored a century against Australia.
What the team needs now is dependable and prolific batting in the middle order. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brendan Nash have been solid but the team need others to step up as well. Ramnaresh Sarwan, when he returns to the team, needs to assume greater responsibility in batting with the middle order. He needs to be the lynch pin that the team builds around.
There are signs that Darren Bravo could become a dependable middle order batsman but he needs to score frequently and score big if he is to make an impact on this team and its fortunes.
Overall, the batsmen need to learn and apply what it takes to build long innings and score big runs. Great batsmen score hundreds and there isn’t enough of that going on in the West Indies team right now. It is not unreasonable to ask that our batsmen, especially those in the middle order score a century half the time they walk to the crease.
What was promising though, was the time both Barath and Bravo spent at the crease while putting together century partnerships with Gayle. Both batted with great focus and that is what the team needs more than anything else.
The team also needs bowlers who can take wickets frequently. Ben and Roach also need help but with Sammy as captain, the make up of the bowling attack will be challenge. Should Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor make successful impact from injury, the West Indies bowling attack could be quite formidable in the immediate future. For that to happen though, Taylor and Edwards, will have to work on raising their fitness levels and work on their bowling. Both can be quite destructive but have to be able to bowl in the right channels more consistently for that to happen.
One of them will have to make way for the captain, so the bowling will – for want of a better term – be a bit depleted.
Still, if Sammy can make himself into a more than useful utility player, he could become an asset to the team in more ways than one.
What I think we are seeing in Sri Lanka is a West Indies team taking the shape of what it could be in a year or two. For right now though, there is still a lot of work to be done.