West Indies will tour Zimbabwe for a short 2-Test series in February. Both Tests will be played between February 04 and February 16. Both Tests will be played at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
West Indies lost the two-match Test tour of Australia 2-0 on last month. Accordingly, Australia won the first Test match held in Perth by 164 runs and the second Test match held at the Adelaide Oval by 419 runs after defeating the regional team.
Son of West Indies cricketer Shivnarine Chandrapaul, Tagenarine Chanderpaul made his Test debut and the left-handed batsman rose to the occasion with a 51 in his first innings. He showed his skills by scoring 45 runs in the second innings. In the second Test, Chandrapaul scored 47 and 17 to finish the series with 160 at an average of 40.
Former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies fast bowler Tony Gray has hailed the efforts of opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who was the bright spark in West Indies’ disappointing tour of Australia.
“First of all Chanderpaul was very impressive…he scored a 50 in his first Test innings in Australia on a bouncy, fast track in Perth.” said Gray
He also scored 119 runs and 56 runs in a practice match against the Prime Minister’s XI before the Test series. Gray said that Chanderpaul faced a strong bowling force in the world.
“That is an absolutely brilliant tour for him because obviously it is his first tour, he is playing in Australia (who is) perhaps the best balanced team in world Test match cricket…they have perhaps the best all-round bowling attack in world cricket at the moment because you have three fast bowlers (Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood) who can be legends at the end of their careers.”
“That is a formidable bowling attack on pitches that suit their type of bowling which is an aggressive type, direct bowling. Chanderpaul has done a marvelous job, fantastic job…he has come from slow, low wickets (in the Caribbean and) he has been able to make that mental and technical transition very quickly against a potent bowling attack.”
Skipper Brathwaite and Chanderpaul got into the runs in this tournament, but no other player was able to perform. Accordingly, Former fast bowler mentioned that many of the West Indies batsmen were in trouble during this tour and their shortcomings were exposed by Australia.
“The other batsmen clearly (have) technical issues. If you have technical issues you are not going to have confidence especially against the likes of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood and then you have Cameron (Green)…and then you have the likes of Nathan Lyon.”
“The West Indian batsmen, first of all, have to improve on their back foot technique against the faster bowlers. Chanderpaul showed us that type of batting technique like (Brian) Lara had…he (Chanderpaul) had extreme movements so he could pull the ball, he could hook the ball, he can play over point and the rest of batsmen not moving their back foot enough.”
During this series, some commentators did not refrain from commenting on the performance of the West Indies team. Australian commentators were unsurprised by Gray’s comments, calling them “straightforward”.