Cricket fans had every reason to believe that, having played enough T20 cricket, West Indies would understand even the format that most encourages their free-spiritedness does not reward the one-size-fits-all approach.
What was billed as a clash of the equals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday night turned out to be an embarrassingly one-sided no-contest. The second Group 1 Super 12 match of the day was a repeat of the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup only because the contestants were the same. Beyond that, even the diehard optimist would be hard pressed to identify similarities.
West Indies were dismissed for just 55 runs by England in a tame showing to open their T20 World Cup campaign. AP
West Indies were hopelessly outclassed not so much by an overwhelmingly superior England as by their own inability to address the challenges that confronted them. That was particularly galling because all their key personnel – Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran and skipper Kieron Pollard – had encountered similar conditions in the UAE in the last month, during the second half of the two-part IPL 2021.
That being said, West Indies weren’t the victims of a decidedly dodgy surface that hampered aggressive intent. If anything, it was their own (mis)adventurism that cost them. Armed with a justified reputation of being the most muscular and feared batting unit in the competition, Pollard’s men were rolled over inside 15 overs by the English, for their lowest score in all T20 World Cups. Their final tally, 55, mirrored the shirt number of their captain. As was obvious at the halfway stage, it was grossly inadequate, possibly 100 short of par for the course. England’s six-wicket romp with 70 deliveries remaining didn’t appropriately reflect the gulf between the teams on the night.
All’s not lost, of course. The defending champions have four more games in inarguably the tougher of the two Super groups. Ahead of them lie Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the last two having come through the qualification stage and therefore with greater knowledge of the conditions. The holders must win at least three of those matches if their title defence isn’t to fall flat this early. But for any chance of that to happen, there has to be a paradigm shift in their way of thinking, a totally altered mindset where respecting the conditions and the match situation is a non-negotiable.
There is a reason why West Indies are the only team to have won the T20 World Cup twice. The 20-over faceoff is for the most part a wonderful platform for them to flex their considerable batting muscle. But to refuse to change tack even when wickets are tumbling like nine pins on a track where the scope for unbridled stroke-making is limited is a symptom of cricketing indifference which inevitably comes with the direst consequences.
It is possible that, in their very next showdown against South Africa at the same venue on Wednesday, they might end up amassing upwards of 200 by embracing the same methodology that so badly let them down on Saturday. While that might justify, temporarily, their faith in all-out aggression, will the ends necessarily justify the means? Will that mean prudence ought to go out the window when the odds are stacked against you? Will that preclude the necessity for common sense when one batsman after another perishes in trying to mock the size of the boundaries which, in a welcome development, are a lot longer than elsewhere in the world.
If there’s one thing the IPL has shown in the last months, it is that bravado doesn’t always pay. Deference to the immediate demands call perforce for a realistic assessment of a competitive total, which in turn means egos have to be set aside and the booming strokes employed carefully, calculatedly and judiciously.
If that means having to adopt circumspection against the spinners, then so be it. Even in T20 cricket, as the IPL perfectly illustrated, it’s not always about pulverising fours and brutal sixes. Working the gaps, showcasing industry between the wickets and swapping belligerence for intelligence are worth their weight in gold.
England’s prime destroyers were spin twins Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. Between them, they boasted combined figures of six for 19 from 6.2 overs. Moeen sent down 18 dot balls in his four-over burst, leggie Rashid conceded only two singles in his 14 balls on his way to sensational figures of four for two, comfortably the best by an English bowler in this format. Even they must have been taken aback by the ease and rapidity with which they courted success. The only batsman to touch double-figures was Gayle (13 at a run a ball), who was also one of only three batsmen to face more than ten deliveries, apart from Pollard (an innings-high 14) and No 9 Akeal Hosein (13).
This was a spectacular fall from grace for unquestionably the most intimidating batting group in T20Is. But it also reiterated West Indies’ frustrating propensity to oscillate freely between the subliminal and the ridiculous. As Chennai Super Kings have repeatedly shown, the vicissitudes of this version notwithstanding, consistency need not be a casualty. But to attain that level of consistency, it is imperative for unfettered communication from the middle to the dugout, and the willingness to use information gathered from time in the middle astutely and adroitly, if not cautiously and circumspectly.
Pollard is a wisened head who has seen it all with five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians, just as Bravo is a past T20 master who again drove the CSK challenge this year. Between them and the other experienced hands – Gayle and Russell – they know what course correction is needed going forward. As always, though, it is what they do with this knowledge that will be crucial. It will be foolhardy to write West Indies off after the Saturday no-show, but unless they reinvent themselves, this could be one painful and long, yet paradoxically a very short, campaign.