JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Roach hails young fast-bowling trio as ‘X-factor’

by

Sports Desk
432 days ago
20240515
West Indies fast-bowler Kemar Roach, left celebrates a wicket with fellow pacer Shamar Joseph during the opening Test against Australia in Adelaide in January.

West Indies fast-bowler Kemar Roach, left celebrates a wicket with fellow pacer Shamar Joseph during the opening Test against Australia in Adelaide in January.

LON­DON – Vet­er­an seam­er Ke­mar Roach has hailed the fast bowl­ing trio of Jay­den Seales, Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph as the “X-fac­tor” the Caribbean side needs in or­der to make an im­pact in the two-Test se­ries against Eng­land this Ju­ly.

West In­dies have not won a se­ries on Eng­lish soil in 36 years and have man­aged on­ly two wins in their last 15 Tests there over the last 17 years.

How­ev­er, with the emer­gence of the 24-year-old Shamar Joseph and the re­turn to fit­ness of the 22-year-old Seales, cou­pled with the com­ing of age of Alzarri Joseph, 27, Roach be­lieves the com­bi­na­tion came make the dif­fer­ence on the up­com­ing tour.

“With Shamar and Jay­den Seales now – Alzarri as well – they have added a lot of X fac­tor to the bowl­ing unit,” said Roach, who at 35 is the most ex­pe­ri­enced mem­ber of the West In­dies seam at­tack with 270 Test wick­ets.

“On any giv­en day, they can have a great spell and be dev­as­tat­ing. That is what you want. You just want it as con­sis­tent­ly as pos­si­ble, to have those great days.

“To have three guys like that in the team, [for] a cap­tain to have that to se­lect, for any giv­en day or any giv­en sur­face [is great].

“As a group, we are pret­ty con­fi­dent. Eng­land is al­ways our biggest se­ries … [and] we want to put up a good fight, put on a good show.

“We haven’t won a Test se­ries in Eng­land for quite a while so it is good to come with some con­fi­dence, and hope­ful­ly, we can do it this time.”

Roach will have rea­son for his op­ti­mism af­ter watch­ing Shamar Joseph bowl West In­dies to their first Test win Down Un­der in 27 years last Jan­u­ary.

With the Aussies chas­ing a pal­try tar­get of 216 in Bris­bane, Joseph pro­duced an out­stand­ing sev­en-wick­et haul to hand West In­dies a dra­mat­ic eight-run vic­to­ry in­side four days.

In the first Test in Ade­laide, Joseph snatched a five-wick­et haul on de­but to al­so im­press, de­spite the Caribbean side’s ten-wick­et de­feat.

Seales, mean­while, has been su­perb for Sus­sex in the Coun­ty Cham­pi­onship this sea­son, two back-to-back five-wick­et hauls push­ing his tal­ly for the sea­son to a league-lead­ing 23 wick­ets in Di­vi­sion Two.

He too made a bright start to his ca­reer as a 19-year-old, pick­ing up a five-wick­et haul against Pak­istan in on­ly his third Test, and has since gone on to claim 37 from 10 match­es at 24 runs apiece.

Alzarri Joseph, with 92 wick­ets from 32 Tests, has be­come a fix­ture in the side and de­vel­oped as a gen­uine quick bowler.

West In­dies’ first Test at Lord’s on Ju­ly 10 will al­so be the farewell Test for Eng­land fast bowl­ing icon Jim­my An­der­son but Roach said the Caribbean’s side fo­cus will be on ex­e­cut­ing their game plan.

“It’s a very high­ly tal­ent­ed and skil­ful group,” said Roach, who lies fifth on the West In­dies all-time list of wick­et-tak­ers.

“We’ve not had the best of times over here in Eng­land, so it’s more about fo­cus­ing on us – not what they’re go­ing to do for him (An­der­son).

“He’s go­ing to get what he de­serves. But it’s all about us work­ing hard to get what we de­serve, which is a se­ries win over here in Eng­land.”

The sec­ond Test will be played at Trent Bridge in Not­ting­ham start­ing Ju­ly 18.

(CMC)


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored