Former Australia cricketer Rodney Hogg has been in the headlines after West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite’s strong comments on the ex-player’s criticism.
Hogg’s criticism served as motivation for the West Indies team to change the situation and win the second Test against Australia in Brisbane.
Hogg had previously remarked that the West Indies side were ‘hopeless’ and ‘pathetic.’ But Brathwaite fired back at him after the innings and even flexed his muscles with the statement, “Are these muscles big enough for him?”
Following these statements, Hogg has now decided to speak out and said that the match initially seemed like a ‘two-and-a-half-day game,’ but then praised how the West Indies scripted a comeback.
Speaking about the West Indies’ performance in the second Test, Hogg acknowledged his surprise at how West Indies turned the game around from being at 5/65 at one stage.
“When I looked at the West Indies in that first innings in this second Test, I was having a look here and thinking to myself, ‘How good was my prediction?’. They were 5/65, and Starc had three wickets… it was looking like a dead-set two-and-a-half-day game,” Hogg told SEN Radio.
This win marked West Indies’ first Test victory on Australian soil since 1997. Despite early setbacks in the match, Shamar Joseph’s remarkable seven-wicket haul played a pivotal role in guiding the visitors to success.
In a candid manner, Hogg jokingly said that he seemed to have “reinvented West Indies Test cricket” and acknowledged the substantial improvement shown by the team over time. He mentioned that the players used this criticism to rise up and put on an inspired show, eventually toppling Australia.
“They came here with six guys that didn’t have a Test cap, and they were so inexperienced, and you sort of thought, ‘Well, they are a bunch of hopeless players,’ but given some game time, a few of them showed some real ability, didn’t they? The longer the two games went on, the better they got,” he added.
West Indies’ remarkable comeback in the second Test helped them in avoiding a series defeat against Australia. The two-match Test series between Australia and West Indies ended 1-1.
All test series should be a minimum of three games.
West Indies players main problem is that they do not play with the same passion and intensity as in the county matches among themselves,,,they get timid and as such fall prey to the opposition…