West Indies vs England 2019: 4 things we learnt from the Test series

#1 Windies’ batting remains very fragile

Shai Hope once again failed to deliver

While England may be having their issues with the batting line-up, those facing the West Indians are even more serious.

Kraigg Brathwaite used to be a very dependable opener for the Windies. Despite lacking natural flair, he used his doggedness to get good scores consistently. But of late, the batsman from Barbados hasn’t been getting enough runs.

Shai Hope continues to disappoint in a big way. He hasn’t scored a hundred since his match-winning twin tons against England and even the fifties have been few. His returns in the longest format of the game have been so poor that he would have lost his place in most other teams by now.

It is hard to figure out what is the problem. While it can be conjectured that he is wilting under the pressure of expectations, his dismissals in this series raise questions about his temperament and technique as well.

Shimron Hetmyer has massive potential but needs to temper his aggression to become a great player.

Darren Bravo played a brilliant innings in the second Test where he battled hard for hours to score a pivotal knock that proved crucial in his team’s victory.

But apart from that, his performance in this series was highly disappointing. Partly, this could be the result of returning to Test cricket after a long time. He still remains their best batsmen but would be required to be more prolific in the future.

Roston Chase too has been inconsistent. Yes, his ton in the last innings of the third Test was very impressive as he battled hard while others capitulated around him. Yet, he needs to be a lot more consistent in order to become a top batsman and he certainly has the ability to.

The complete capitulation of the line-up against high-speeds of Mark Wood is worrying. This, after their struggles against spin in subcontinent last year raises questions.

Yes, the way they tackled Anderson and Broad shows they can deal with good swing bowling reasonably well but serious technical issues need to be sorted out for them to become a quality team and perform like they did in this series on a consistent basis.