IND vs WI | West Indies derive their power from middle-order, says Joy Bhattacharjya
BCCI
Cricket analyst Joy Bhattacharjya said that West Indies cricket team tend to do well when their middle-order is firing all cylinders and thus they need to solve the opening problem. In the final ODI versus India, Pollard and Pooran showed the kind of strength the Windies middle-order possesses.
Ever since losing the services of the Universe Boss Chris Gayle, West Indies team have become a lot more dependant on their middle-order. Cricket analyst Joy Bhattacharjya believes that whenever the West Indies team does well, it is their middle-order that goes all guns blazing. In the series decider at Cuttack, this was exactly the situation that proved it as some fine finishing from Skipper Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran helped Windies post a total in excess of 300. Thus, as India generally is heavily reliant on its top three, West Indies depend on their middle order.
"India as a team dominates when their number 1,2,3 do well. But West Indies tend to do well when their 4,5,6,7,8 do well because that is really their strength. Missing somebody as dominant as Chris Gayle up top definitely makes a difference but also it is about the new age of consistency. The West Indies consistency comes from their middle-order and thus they need to find a stable top two," Bhattacharjya said in a chat show on Cricbuzz.
Replacing someone like Chris Gayle will definitely not be easy but Shai Hope has shown time and time again that he can bat through the innings and anchor the Windies ship from one end. Evin Lewis, on the other hand, has struggled of late and has shown no signs of consistency whatsoever and thus it is evident that the Windies should find a suitable partner for Hope who would be explosive in nature and would help Hope play his natural role of anchoring the innings.
"Shai Hope is one half of the puzzle solved and if Evin Lewis comes good, this will be a very explosive team because their middle order is as good, as explosive and as versatile as you would see. Because the kind of line-ups that they play with, they always have 2-3 all-rounders which means that they bat till number 8 so there is a lot of power down there so they just need to solve the opening issue," Bhattacharjya reckoned.
Bhattacharjya also spoke about the masterstroke that former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly had made by making Virender Sehwag who was primarily a middle-order batsman open in Test cricket. After Sehwag flourished in Tests, he took over the same job in ODIs and formed a famous partnership with Sachin Tendulkar and thus the Windies should try someone like a Brandon King or a Fabian Allen to solve their opening issues and back them to do well.
"Virender Sehwag opened in Tests and then displaced one of the strongest opening partnerships in the form of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav (Ganguly). So the West Indies can definitely try out giving a youngster a similar opportunity and back him."
