Middle order to the rescue again for Australia as West Indies miss a golden winning chance

ICC World Test Championship

It if wasn't for West Indies' poor catching form in both the innings and some absolutely pathetic umpiring, the match could have swung the other way last week. It was more of the same from Pat Cummins' men as the top order once again struggled on a spicy pitch where the fast bowlers made merry. Rescued by their middle and lower order otherwise, we would have been going into the second Test with a different score line.  

West Indies' young fast bowlers bowled with great heart with the ball exploiting the conditions on offer after losing the toss. Australia handed a recall to the exciting young opener Sam Konstas as Josh Inglis replaced the injured Steve Smith, who is confirmed to be back for the second Test. Shamar Joseph beautifully exploited Konstas' weakness to the inswinging delivery getting him out lbw in the first and bowled in the second innings. Smith will be back at his preferred No 4. place but is Cameron Green really comfortable at No.3? It's too early to be asking these questions after just four innings but it's not the runs but the technique which Green has displayed that beckons this criticism. He has been standing on the back foot to counter the inswing deliveries because of this tall height but pushing too hard against the one going away from his body. He has not been able to show good feet movement as well as better body balance and has been fending at those deliveries causing him to edge those behind. Can he change his technique to counter these deliveries better in the upcoming games?

Travis Head was back to his counter attacking best with a some sublime cricket on the off side scoring half centuries in both innings to take the Player-of-the-match award but he was lucky to survive a contentious caught behind when the ball seemed to comfortably carry to Shai Hope's gloves. However, Hope was given out in the second innings to a similar decision where the ball had quite clearly hit the ground after carrying into the left glove of Alex Carey. Third umpire Adrian Holdstock was on a roll when he upheld another lbw decision of Roston Chase in the first innings although replays showed there was a clear deflection off the edge. I believe the comments from coach Daren Sammy were completely justified and the umpires should be reprimanded on such occasions given that we have such high pixel technology in place. Holdstock is supposed to be the third umpire for all three games which begs the question, "How is this fair?"

But West Indies have themselves to blame for this loss. A total of seven catches were dropped in the slip and gully cordon by this new look side. Captain Roston Chase and the coaching staff needs to put extra focus on their as chances like these against strong sides don't come too often. Their new ball bowlers showed brilliant maturity despite just being 26 Tests old with both Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph(who took his third successive fifer in three Tests against Australia) picking up a fifer in each innings and if the fielders back them up, they can be even more potent on such helpful pitches.

West Indies Achilles' heel, their batting underperformed yet again(their batting averages 21.51, the worst in WTC with least individual hundreds). It showed again in Barbados as their batters were unable to counter the threat of the Australian quartet. Mediocre scores of 190 and 141 condemned them to a 159-run defeat after dominating 60% of the game. Not a single individual score of 50+ in both innings shows the sorry state of their batting. The onus lies on the experienced Kraigg Braithwaite, playing his 100th Test match and hasn't scored a single century in his last 34 innings. Is he the worst Test player to complete 100 Tests? The reality is that he has been able to secure his place in the side only because his side hasn't produced better batsman throughout his tenure. He has gotten out in single digits about 51 times, more than 26% of his career averaging only 32.83 after 99 tests. Braithwaite really needs to put his hand up now or else West Indies should start looking in a different direction with some promising names like Mikyle Louis from their domestic structure. Louis is already part of the squad for the second test

Steve Smith will return to the side for the second Test which is the only change confirmed int heir starting XI. The bowling looks quite settled after an off day in the WTC final, as they roared back with 20 wickets in just 87 overs with Josh Hazlewood completing his thirteenth fifer. They have backed the same bowlers for a third Test in a row, and if they wrap up the series in St George's Park we might see a few changes in the next game. Special mention to the under-appreciated Beau Webster as well who has quietly made impactful performances so far in his short Test career as he scored a fighting 63 in the second innings to push his team's score above 300 after taking a couple of wickets in the first innings. He has claiming a hold on the seam bowling all-round spot which puts more pressure on Cam Green to perform with the bat.

Grenada will see clear weather over the next five days with bright sunshine. St. George's Park has hosted only four games with the team winning the toss electing to field every time and winnings three out of the four. The pitch is again on unknown areas like the last one at the Kensington Oval but could be similar to what we have seen in the last few years, assisting fast bowling with some moisture and getting better to bat on as the game progresses.

References : ESPNCricinfo, Statsguru by ESPNCricinfo