West Indies’ Test wicketkeepers have never captured the imagination of cricket fans as a batter. Jeffrey Dujon was probably an exception. The Jamaican with most Tests for West Indies as a wicketkeeper, had the highest batting average (31.5) among the glovemen during his career span between 1981 and 1991 (31.5)
But overall, West Indies have been thin on receiving batting contributions from their wicketkeepers.
After Dujon (79 Tests), Denesh Ramdin (75 Tests) and Ridley Jacobs (65 Tests) have played the most Tests as designated wicketkeepers for the Caribbean side. Unlike Dujon, Ramdin and Jacobs averaged much lower than other wicketkeepers of their era. Jacobs began his career in the late 90s when teams were actively looking for glovesmen who could also contribute with the bat.
The likes of Adam Gilchrist, Andy Flower, and Alec Stewart played impactful innings as wicket-keeper batters. West Indies though kept falling behind in the race of wicket-keepers contributing with the bat.
Jacobs played from 1998 to 2004. Ramdin had the lowest batting average for any wicketkeeper-batter of his active years (2005 to 2016) with more than 1,000 runs. Shane Dowrich looked promising but couldn’t meet the world standards. His average of 29.7 suffers the same fate as Ramdin. West Indies moved on from him in 2020, replacing him with Joshua Da Silva.
There is a methodical approach to his art of forming partnerships. “Da Silva’s encouragement to build partnerships, to look at small totals, every 10 runs, start over from zero again to score another 10 runs, and again another ten runs, and in a matter of no time, we had an 80-run partnership,” said Alzarri Joseph, the Trinidadian’s partner at the other end during their 118-run stand with the wicketkeeper-batter against Bangladesh.
On his Test debut in New Zealand, Da Silva refused a single while batting on 49 to protect the number 10 batter from facing five balls of Trent Boult’s over. The maturity to separate the lure of a fifty on debut from what the team required reflected at the beginning itself.
The right-hander has shown all the qualities of cracking Test cricket at a higher level than his numbers suggest. Struggling in Test cricket, West Indies are known to show fight in patches and Da Silva has been a common figure across most of those patches.
Consequently, he has played in each of the 29 Tests for West Indies since his debut, reflecting the team’s trust in him. Given the ingredients, the Marrom caps would want him to average 40-plus by the end of his career. And as the cliché ‘World cricket needs a strong West Indies side’ suggests, the rest of the world would appreciate the man from Trinidad to fulfil his potential too.
Despite only one fifty in the recently concluded series in England, Da Silva had a decent tour with another score of 49 and showing more promise for future. In the absence of Alzarri, who is rested for the upcoming two Tests against South Africa, he has been ascended to the vice-captaincy role.
Having faced the Proteas twice – two Tests at home and two away — Da Silva averages only 12.1 against them, his second-lowest against any side in the longest format.
However, with four years of Test cricket behind his back and the responsibility of vice-captaincy on his shoulders, it is now time for him to start pushing towards that 40-run average mark.