Major blow to West Indies: Shamar and Alzarri Joseph ruled out of India Test series

Ahmedabad: It came like a bolt from the blue for the West Indies. The injuries to fast bowlers Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph have thinned the West Indies’ bowling resources for the two-Test series against India set to start here on Thursday, a day the home country will celebrate Vijayadashami.

The West Indies, which has played 47 Tests in India since the debut series in November 1948, still enjoys a slight 14-13 advantage over the home team. Twenty Test matches were drawn affairs. But the upcoming Test series, whittled down to a mere two Tests, but that will be part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, puts the team led by the young India captain Shubman Gill ahead of the visitor led by Roston Chase. Things can go awry in the glorious game of cricket; the first Test to be played on a red soil pitch can throw up opportunities for the underdog team, which is the West Indies.

The reduction in the number of Tests against one of the popular teams to visit India is a reflection of the diminishing talent in the Caribbean side known for producing a battery of fast bowlers riding roughshod on its opponents and some dazzling batters.

Over a period of nearly nine decades, India and the team sporting the famous maroon cap have played three five-Test series, two six-Test series, one four-Test series, and four three-Test series, with the decline in the number of Tests happening from the 1994-95 series. After a colossal presence in World cricket, the West Indies have slipped to the lower rungs in the last three decades.

The West Indies thrashed India 3-0 in the 1983-84 series, not long after Kapil Dev’s Indian team shocked the Clive Lloyd-led West Indies in the 1983 World Cup final. But it has not won only two Tests (and not a series) in the last 38 years. India has won the last four home series 2-0 each. India would be keen and eager to replicate the earlier results and consolidate its position in the WTC points table.

The team led by Chase, in the fresh hostilities to start tomorrow, pinned its hopes on the fast bowling trio in Shamar Joseph, Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales, but two heavyweights in this group have been eliminated from the contests because of injuries. It would be interesting to see how the new faces shape up in a short series, with the replacements being Johann Layne and Jediah Blades.

Touching upon Shamar, the right-hand fast bowler excited the cricket world when he routed Australia with a sensational spell of 7 for 68 in the second innings of the Brisbane Test on his debut series against Australia in January 2024. The West Indies won this Test by eight runs.

In eleven Tests, Shamar has taken 51 wickets at 21.67. In his last home Test series against Australia in July, he was a top-notch performer with a collection of 22 wickets at 14.97. Cricket West Indies has not revealed the nature of his injury, but Shamar will be missed by the captain Chase.

The second fast bowler with a Joseph surname, Alzarri, has been ruled out due to a lower back issue. He has taken 124 wickets in 40 Tests. They had a bit of experience on Indian pitches, but their talent with the ball alone would have made them tough customers to deal with. But both will not be seen in action here at the Narendra Modi Stadium and also at the Kotla in New Delhi.

The most experienced fast bowler in the team is Trinidad and Tobago’s Seales, who has taken 88 wickets in 21 Tests. The others who can bowl fast medium are Justin Greaves and Anderson Phillip.

Shamar has been replaced by seam bowling allrounder Layne, a 22-year-old Barbadian who has taken 66 wickets in 19 first-class matches, and Alzarri has been replaced by fast bowler Blades, a 23-year-old left-arm seamer, also from Barbados. He has played for the West Indies in white ball cricket, but he is yet to be capped in Test cricket. He has taken 35 wickets in 13 first-class matches.

It looks like the visitor will have to use spinner Chase (off spin, 86 wickets) and Jomel Warrican (left arm, 73 wickets) at the stadium here and also at the Kotla. The West Indies will be playing a Test series in India after seven years. And a lot of things have changed with the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

The West Indies fast bowlers - starting from the great Wesley Hall to the likes of Courtney Walsh troubled India’s batters and trumped them in their backyard. Their pacemen have accounted for 528 wickets on Indian soil, conceding a little under three runs an over. But from January 2001, the numbers have changed remarkably with their fast bowlers taking 64 wickets at 43.53, which depicts a change in the fortunes in favour of the home team.

The tall and gangling Walsh leads with 43 wickets at 18.56, and he is followed by Hall, 38 at 20.95, Andy Roberts, 37, Malcolm Marshall, 36, Michael Holding, 30 and a few more outwitting the Indian batters.

But in the last 25 years, it has been a lacklustre display by the West Indies fast bowlers, with Mervyn Dillon taking 11 wickets in three Tests of the 2002 series. Off-spinner Lance Gibbs has played nine Tests and taken 39 wickets at 23.38, and Chase will hope to deploy his off-spin craft for better results than what he has done in three Tests, a mere four wickets at 48.25.

He is a mature competitor now. The West Indies spinners have taken 193 wickets at a high average of 44.07, but the Indian batters who were foxed by the New Zealand spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel will be wary of taking chances against Chase and left-arm spinner Warrican.

It’s another India-West Indies series, and the home team that lost 0-3 to New Zealand will be keen to change the tide and look for positive results.

Shamar and Alzarri will be hugely disappointed, missing out on the series, and so would be the Indian fans who cannot see the exciting Shamar in action.

After a highly intense Test series against England, which ended in a 2-2 draw, India, under the new captain Gill, would like to dictate terms with its spinners. It will be Gill’s first Test as captain at home. The two-Test series can become interesting, but the absence of Shamar and Alzarri will hurt the West Indies.