There is no Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner or Colin Croft but this West Indian team believes they have their own “enforcer” who can unsettle Australia in the two-Test series beginning at Perth Stadium on Wednesday.
A genuinely quick Alzarri Joseph has the advantage of playing Australia on a fast and bouncy Perth pitch, followed by the help fast bowlers will receive under lights during the day-night Test in Adelaide.
“He’s got pace,” allrounder and former captain Jason Holder said. “He’s very aggressive at times too, and he’s probably going to be [the] guy we ask to be the enforcer and be a little bit more aggressive.”
David Warner recalls Joseph as a teenage net bowler on a white ball tour of the West Indies in 2016.
“We saw him just bowling thunderbolts,” Warner said. “On those wickets, they were quite glassy and a bit ridgey, it was a bit daunting.
“We just didn’t know where he’d come from. We actually thought he might have rolled out for one of the domestic teams. He was young back then. It’s good to see him evolve.
Alzarri Joseph bowling against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.Credit:Getty
“He’s a fantastic bowler, he’s got a good record. I faced him in the IPL when he first came in and took six-fa against us. He’s an exciting young talent. That’s what West Indies cricket needs, they need guys coming in and bowling at high speeds.”
Just how fantastic Warner thinks Joseph’s emergence is will be interesting if the ball starts flying around as it did during the first Test played at Perth Stadium, against India in 2018.
Travis Head, who was part of that match, believes there are two scenarios given the forecast of mid-30s temperatures.
“Either they are going to have a lot of moisture in it, and it might go around corners. Or it could be dry, and we see a lot of cracks,” Head said.
Kemar RoachCredit:AP
“Normally, you get them [cracks] straight down the wicket, but I remember in 2018 they went the other way as well. So, it could pose an interesting couple of days for us.”
Like Warner, Head rates the West Indies pace attack.
“They have Joseph who has high pace and [Kemar] Roach has done it for a long period of time. I have obviously seen a fair bit of Roach in County cricket and the skillset he has. He challenges left-handers from around the wicket and swings it away.
“We have seen that be challenging for a lot of teams who have come here or the UK. They have a high-quality pace attack, no doubt about that.”
While Roach, 34, no longer has the pace he once did, the West Indian quick announced himself on his first tour of Australia during 2009 by forcing Ricky Ponting to retire hurt after striking the Australian captain in the elbow with a nasty, lifting delivery.
Jayden Seales bowling against the Prime Minister’s XICredit:Getty Images
The surprise packet could be Jayden Seales, 21, who has 36 wickets at an average of under 22 from nine Tests against South Africa, Pakistan, England and Bangladesh since his debut midway through last year.
“Swing, [and] control, those are his two greatest attributes,” Holder said of Seales. “Maybe not so much swing here in these conditions, but I think he’s good enough to extract a bit of seam movement as well.”
Holder, who generates uncomfortable bounce with his height, believes the West Indian Test team is a more competitive unit than the T20 side that failed to make it past the qualifying stages of the recent T20 World Cup in Australia.
“There’s two different teams you know,” Holder said. “All the T20 guys have gone home. We just had five guys remaining back, and they just refreshed and come back in.”
They head into this series in winning form, having beaten England and Bangladesh 1-0 and 2-0 respectively in the Caribbean in March and June.
