ENG vs WI | Winners and Losers ft. Rain gods, Hopeful Windies and Black Lives Matter
Another series victory for England at home, another edition of Winners and Losers from our side as we look at who won and lost throughout the rain-halted series. Whilst we know the obvious winners and losers- England and West Indies, here we look at a more minute level of who won and who lost.
Winners
Chris Silverwood
Before England’s series against New Zealand, Chris Silverwood was given the job of leading the most media-criticised side, England’s Test team. While it was a painful start after their loss to New Zealand yet it was followed by an impressive victory against South Africa. However, his first assignment at home was against the West Indies side led by Jason Holder. First up, why is he a winner? Well for starters, his astonishing selection procedure involved in dropping Stuart Broad from his 52nd consecutive appearance in England. To be really honest, that changed the entire momentum of the series.
At Southampton, England were rocked by a fantabulous performance from the visiting West Indian side, one that they did not expect. A visibly dejected Stuart Broad was on the borderline of bashing the selection strategy. However, remember what followed was a mastermind from Silverwood. Directly or indirectly, he propelled the 34-year-old Nottingham pacer to pick up 16 wickets at an average of 10.93. Now if that was not enough, he even propelled an average Chris Woakes to perform magically in the second and third Test, so gold to ‘Silver’wood.
Black Lives Matter
While cricket was one of the obvious winners as the game restarted on an international level for the first time since the absence, the stance from both sides kicked-off cricket in the most beautiful of fashion. #BlackLivesMatter has been a long-standing issue across the globe but since the turn of this year, it has had its searing effect more than ever. For ECB to put up such a brilliant message alongside the West Indies team, it was a marvellous sight for the cricket fans. On top of that, every player took the knee and supported the cause as one big cricketing nation.
The series might be remembered for being the home to many landmarks- Stuart Broad's 500 Test wickets, Kemar Roach's 200 Test wickets and the last of Wisden Trophy but moreso, it will be remembered for how cricket united for supporting a noble cause. This is just the first step from cricket to set things right on point and as it stands right now, it has already started on the right track.
Mark Wood
England finally for god’s sake decided to rotate their bowlers and the biggest winner from their decision was none other than the 30-year-old from Ashington, Mark Andrew Wood. Before this series, Wood was rather a deadwood thanks to Root’s rigorous use of the bowler. So much so he was involved in everything for England against South Africa, be it with the bat, on the field or with the ball. He’s definitely a ‘Madman’ with his potential just on the highest of the ceiling. At Southampton, he bowled exactly 34 overs against the 57 overs that he bowled in his last two encounters against South Africa.
And before the limited-overs series, the 30-year-old is a big winner as he could go into the series fresh, having just played one game in the three-match Test series. A long summer awaits the pacer, as England are set to welcome Pakistan and Australia later in the coming days. So full points to Root, Stokes and whoever was involved in the decision-making process as Wood finally got what he needed, a proper workload.
Losers
Rain Gods
Oh well, a series in England always has a visiting presence from its dear friend, Rain Gods. Hold on, they have made their presence felt thus far in the series, appearing every time West Indies needed them to. Whilst it was expected to be there for at least three to four days in the series, it had a shorter appearance. In Manchester, a place that is well-known for its rain more than two of the biggest football clubs, United and City, rains only lasted one and a half-day. The entire fourth day was washed-out before rains came haunting once again on the fifth day.
But for once, I would say it had put on a better performance than the Windies batsmen, who were non-existent. Full points to the English rains for their desperate attempts to force the Wisden Trophy to extend their Caribbean visit. However, as it turned out, the weather helped England reclaim the Trophy, which now would be sealed forever at Lord’s museum. Sad day if you are one of those rain gods or the Wisden trophy which was enjoying its stay with Blue Curacao.
‘Hope’ful Windies
Phil Simmons before the series was hopeful and really hopeful that the West Indies batsmen had a steady chance of winning against England after their failed attempts in 2017. Their hopes naturally lay on the shoulders of their star batsmen from the previous tour, Shai Hope. But since the turn of 2017, he has been rather hopeless than hopeful and his batting has been on an all-time low. Since 2017, purely on the basis of numbers Hope averages 20.23 in 2018, 19.75 in 2019 and 17.5 in 2020.
So all in all, Phil Simmons was just hopeful that the 26-year-old from Barbados would put on a show but as it turned out, never just go on the previous performance or to be honest, never judge the book from its preface as it may have written better than the entire book. Going into the next series, Hope goes as a loser and his place as lost as it can get after being below-average.
Steve Elworthy
It always had to be a choice between Steve Elworthy and Ben Foakes for the last of the losers segment. One for the straight-forward reason which has a certain Jos Buttler attached to it and the other again for a well-documented reason, England’s bio-secure bubble. Ahead of this series, the biosecure bubble almost made the news around the world and questions were attached to it as well, with people’s doubts over what would happen if someone broke the protocol.
Rightly, it happened during the three-match series where there was enough room for the players to step aside from the biosecure bubble. Jofra Archer was the first of the high-profile players to take a de route in what was supposed to be the most secure place in England for the spread of the novel virus. But as it turned out, Archer was just one such example which was reported. If the reports are suggesting right, it was really a bad start on ECB’s part of allowing the leeway for players to make a mistake. To make matters worse, it was only after Archer had informed a support-staff that the top-level management got to know about the pacer’s visit to his flat in Brighton.
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