The 33-year-old Guyanese Devendra Bishoo and 30-year-old Barbadian Ashley Nurse have been the missing puzzle in the West Indies’ resurgence. With the World Cup looming, Windies will be building a team for the mega-event, to be held this May in England and Wales. Will both Bishoo and Nurse book a spot to the World Cup?
In the ongoing 2019 One Day International Series between England and the West Indies, Bishoo and Nurse have two wickets combined, conceding 335 runs in 40 overs in tandem. In the first ODI, the spin twins, Nurse and Bishoo, bowled 20 overs, conceding 147 runs and picking up one wicket.
In the second ODI, played in Barbados, Bishoo and Nurse bowled 16 overs together, conceding 77 runs in their wicket-less match.
The third ODI was washed out in Grenada, but Bishoo and Nurse were unsurprisingly taking to the cleaners in the fourth ODI. In the run-fest, the duo bowled 14 overs together, conceding 111 runs and grabbing one wicket in the match.
With the final ODI match set to be played in St Lucia, Bishoo and Nurse will have to redeem themselves if they desire to book a spot to the World Cup.
In this series, Bishoo bowled 24 overs, conceding 170 runs at a poor bowling average of 170.00, with one wicket to his name. The off-spinner Nurse bowled 26 overs, conceding 165 runs and picking up one wicket. Both spinners, seen as the first choice duo in the spin department, have ordinary overall ODI career averages. Nurse played 44 ODIs, picking up 42 wickets at a bowling average of 42.69, with his best bowling figure being 4-62. The Guyanese leg-spinner Bishoo played 41 ODIs in his career, and has 38 wickets at an average of 43.89, with his best bowling figure being 3-30. Either spinner is yet to pick up a five wicket haul for West Indies at this level.
In contrast to other nations, Windies spinners are poor. India’s spin twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal; Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Mujeeb; South Africa’s Imran Tahir and Tabriz Shamsi, England’s Mooen Ali and Adil Rashid are all formidable units.
Bishoo and Nurse are currently out of colour; to dominate the World Cup, the Windies ODI team requires a deadly spin duo the likes of Khary Pierre and Fabian Allen. Perhaps consideration should be given this duo in the near future, if Bishoo and Nurse continue to fail. (Brandon Corlette)
