Windies vs England 2019: Resurgent Windies cause a serious dent in England’s World Cup plans

efore the series, England were considered favorites to win both the Test and ODI series against a Windies side that was showing some promising signs in recent times. Despite some good performances, no one would have put their money on Windies to pose a huge threat to England.

But that’s the beauty of the beautiful game of cricket. Windies, under a resilient and confident Jason Holder, rallied and pulled off an outstanding team-effort and worked on the fragility of the England batting line-up and exploited their weakness to the fullest.

England’s inability to adapt to conditions that don’t necessarily suit their batsmen, something which coach Trevor Bayliss and ODI captain Eoin Morgan stressed upon after their humiliating defeat at St Lucia in the fifth and final ODI, will be a huge cause for concern.

They were very scratchy and lacked the basic temperament and technique to handle the quality of the Windies bowlers like Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder and Oshane Thomas in the ODIs and the likes of Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel in the Tests.

A 2-1 scoreline in the Test series, the host’s first Test series win against England since 1986 followed by equalling the ODI series 2-2 which is an achievement on its own as Windies hadn't won or drawn an ODI series in their last eighteen attempts.

From the return of “Universe Boss” Chris Gayle to the amazing talent of Thomas and Shimron Hetmyer to England’s world-beating batting line up, here’s taking a look at some points that stood out from the recently concluded ODI series.

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#1 Windies have shown enough promise to be considered as World Cup contenders

Oshane Thomas- A future star in the making

Windies have been struggling to put a team together to compete against top quality sides in ODI cricket over the past few years. Various reasons have contributed to this, the ongoing contract issues between the players and the WICB, talented players choosing to play franchise cricket over the national side.

But in the past few months, there seems to be some common sense prevailing and a competitive, strong Windies side has taken the field. The return of Gayle was the biggest positive to come out for the Windies.

Overall, the team looks very balanced with batsmen like Shai Hope, Hetmyer, Darren Bravo to compliment the “Universe Boss”. The fast bowling department looks pretty dominant as well with Holder, Cottrell, Thomas, and Carlos Braithwaite.

Keeping the conditions in England where the World Cup 2019 would be played, Windies have the bowling line-up to trouble most oppositions. Kemar Roach and Shanon Gabriel didn’t feature in this ODI series, once they are back this bowling attack would get even stronger.

The biggest positives to come out of the 2-2 series result against England was that Windies have unearthed two talents in Thomas and Hetmyer who are here to stay for a long time.

The return of Andre Russell in the mix will only make this team more complete and well-balanced. Overall, the way they played in the ODI series certainly has bought back the smiles and joy of the people in the Caribbean and has increased their hopes on their team’s chances in the ICC World Cup.

#2 England’s world-beating batting line-up put on a show that would be remembered

West Indies v England - 4th One Day International

Post their horrendous campaign in the ICC World Cup 2015, England have made a drastic change in their attitude and how they go about expressing themselves in the limited overs versions of the game.

The batting line-up is clearly among the best in the world currently, matching India’s enormous talent and skill. Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, and Alex Hales make for a world beating batting line-up.

And this batting line-up was in full flow in Grenada en route to a stupendous 419 runs with Root, Morgan, and Buttler mauling centuries. None more dominating and mind-boggling like Buttler's 150 off 77 balls.

England sure did struggle against the pace and bounce of the Windies bowlers in St Lucia, but considering the pitches and conditions that would be on offer in the World Cup, England surely still remain favorites to win the marquee tournament.

#3 Chris “Universe Boss” Gayle’s record-breaking return to the Windies side

Chris "Universe Boss" Gayle

Chris Gayle made his return to the Windies ODI squad after almost a year. He had made himself available for this series against England after missing the series against India. He also announced his retirement from the ODI game post the ICC World Cup later on in the year.

Gayle put any doubts or apprehensions with regards to his match fitness coming into ODI cricket after a long gap with a truly commanding batting performance that lit up the grounds and bought back the calypso flavor back with a vengeance.

It was truly a memorable and record-breaking series for Gayle. Some of the records he broke in the 4 ODIs were as follows:

1. Gayle became only the second Windies batsman after Brian Lara to score 10,000 or more runs in ODIs.
2. He overtook Shahid Afridi to hit the most sixes in international cricket, something that he managed to do in the first ODI of the series at Barbados.
3. The ‘Universe Boss” scored the fastest half-century scored by a Windies batsman, scoring a truly mind-blowing half-century in 19 balls at St Lucia’s Darren Sammy International stadium. Ironically Gayle broke the record that was his own.