Opinion
The importance of the captain in cricket can often be overstated.
It’s the kind of role that when done well, can have a positive influence on a game but for the most part, they guide a team in a certain direction but ultimately the result comes down to a series of battles between individuals within the teams.
Bad captaincy stands out like a spinner sending down gentle off-breaks in the 10th over of a Test.
Kraigg Brathwaite earned universal respect for his gutsy efforts with the bat in the first Test in Perth but some of his decisions on day one of the second clash were bewildering.
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After losing the toss and being told to have a bowl first at the batting paradise of the Adelaide Oval, Brathwaite handed the new pill to his fastest, meanest and most talented quick in Alzarri Joseph.
Roston Chase. (Photo by Quinn Rooney – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
The Australian openers got off to a flyer and raced to 34 by the end of the ninth over when David Warner flayed at a wide Joseph delivery to nick off for 21, continuing his near-on three-year Test century drought.
Against the odds, the Windies had an early breakthrough. The ICC’s newly minted No.1 Test batter was striding to the wicket while the new pill still had some bounce and shine about it.
And what did Brathwaite do? Next delivery up the other end, Roston Chase was called on to deliver his pedestrian offies which had yielded one wicket from 37 overs for the cost of 171 runs in Perth.
The only time a spinner ever gets to roll the arm over this early in a Test is when the pitch is a raging turner. This wicket was nothing of the sort.
Brian Lara was almost lost for words from what he was witnessing from the Fox Cricket commentary box.
“I’m trying to understand it. You’ve got (Anderson) Phillip and (Marquino) Mindley. I don’t know, I can’t explain it as yet,” the Windies icon added in reference to the two new seamers in the team who had been overlooked to be the first-change bowler.
Over in the SEN Radio booth, former Windies pace spearhead Ian Bishop summed it up in one word: “Flabbergasted.”
Spinners like Roger Harper and Carl Hooper from their era would rarely get the ball in their hand on the first day of a Test let alone in the first session or hour.
Not surprisingly, Labuschagne was able to work Chase away for singles early in his innings as he settled in for a trademark lengthy stay at the crease.
He and Usman Khawaja took the total to 89 by lunch and were five runs shy of a century partnership when part-time medium-pacer Devon Thomas trapped the opener in front for 62.
And when Steve Smith departed via a return catch to Jason Holder, the Aussies were 3-131 and the tourists clearly had the upper hand.
Brathwaite this time looked like he was going to go in for the kill after getting a sniff of blood.
He brought Joseph back into the attack to work over Travis Head. For all of two overs.
And then he not only took Joseph out of the attack as Holder’s six-over spell came to an end but he brought Chase back on and duplicated the innocuous off-spin with some more of his own up the other end.
The field was spread, the bowling was benign and the skipper’s terrible tactics again let the pressure off for Australia with Labuschagne and Head cantering through the next five overs to the tea break without raising a sweat.
Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer on Seven commentary were perplexed. These two Aussie icons were renowned for never giving a sucker an even break and they also couldn’t see any logic behind Brathwaite’s negativity.
“It is rubbish bowling. They’ve just given away 30 runs,” Ponting fumed. “They built the pressure up, Jason Holder’s done the job that he’s done, Devon Thomas gets the breakthrough, Smith gets the duck. And then going into the tea break they’re happy to give 30 or 40 runs away.
“Six overs (of spin) in tandem and they’ve already conceded 38 runs. Jason Holder will be absolutely spewing. Bent his back, did everything right, disciplined, executed really well, only for this to happen.”
When you’re the captain of a team that is missing key players due to injury after already being a rank outsider against a star-studded opponent, the default position is to be as defensive as possible as early as possible.
But trying to play for a draw from the first hour of a Test is rarely going to work.
Surely the Windies would be better off attacking in the field from the get-go. Better to go down swinging rather than a prolonged dismantling over five days as we saw at Optus Stadium last week.
Predictably, Head and Labuschagne cashed in on the pop-gun attack in the final session as they both racked up hundreds to be 3-330 at stumps.
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