Who is Justin Greaves? 5 interesting facts about batter set to debut in 1st AUS vs WI Test

The West Indies take on Australia in the first Test match of a two-match series on Wednesday, January 17, at the Adelaide Oval. The tour further consists of three ODIs and T20Is each, with the Windies already taking part in a warm-up match against CA XI, which ended in a draw.

The West Indies' Test squad includes plenty of debutants. The playing XI that they announced for the opener includes three debutants, namely: seamer Shamar Joseph, batter Kavem Hodge and lastly, batting all-rounder Justin Greaves.

The 29-year-old Greaves is an experienced campaigner who has already made his ODI debut, and is a well-known figure in the Caribbean cricket circuit. Here are five interesting facts about the debutant.

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#1 All 3 of his international appearances have come against Ireland, as an opener

Justin Greaves has taken part in only three international fixtures before his Test debut, and all of them were ODIs against Ireland in January 2022. Greaves opened the batting alongside Shai Hope in the three-match series, but didn't have much luck, falling early in all three matches, and aggregating only 29 runs.

He has earned a recall to the ODI squad for this series as a result of his stellar List A performances and will want to make the most of them this time around.

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#2 He's one among three players in the squad who were in WI's 2012 U-19 WC Squad

Justin Greaves is one among three current members of West Indies' Test squad who took part in the 2012 U-19 World Cup that was held in Australia. That U-19 team was led by the current Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite, with batter Kavem Hodge also a part of the team.

Interestingly, Hodge is also set to make his Test debut along with Greaves in the first Test against Australia. Other notable U-19 teammates of Greaves in the 2012 World Cup include Kyle Mayers and Akeal Hosein.

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#3 He's also a very handy bowler

Justin Greaves started as a bowling all-rounder who batted in the middle-order in his U-19 days, and in fact, was one of their best bowlers in the tournament. In six matches, Greaves picked up eight wickets at an economy rate of 4.15.

He's likely to play a similar role in this West Indies Test side, and his first-class numbers look encouraging, especially with the ball. Greaves has picked up 76 wickets in 37 first-class matches at a great bowling average of 22.70, and he'll look to add to that tally on the seamer-friendly Australian wickets.

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#4 He scored his maiden List A century recently

Justin Greaves scored his maiden List A ton playing for the Leeward Islands.

Justin Greaves scored his maiden List A century in October 2023 in a Super50 Cup match between Leeward Islands and Winward Islands. Opening the batting, Greaves scored a 126-ball 121 that helped his side get to a total of 293.

In reply, they restricted Winward Islands to only 179, with Hayden Walsh and captain Alzarri Joseph among the wickets.

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#5 He bowled the final over in West Indies' U-19 World Cup 2012 QF defeat

Justin Greaves was a part of the West Indies' U-19 World Cup squad in 2012 under the captaincy of Kraigg Brathwaite. After topping their group with three wins out of three, the Windies took on New Zealand in the quarter-finals.

Batting first, they scored 237 in 50 overs, and in their reply, the Black Caps were at 220/7 at the end of 49 overs. Greaves was handed the ball with 18 runs to defend in the last over, with Ish Sodhi and Jacob Duffy at the crease.

Greaves, who had up until then bowled well, with figures of 1/26 in seven overs, was taken apart by Sodhi. He smashed 12 runs off the last three balls to knock them out of the World Cup, which India eventually won.