Ian Bishop questions Roston Chase's form, future as WI Test skipper

Ian Bishop questions Roston Chase's future as WI Test skipper, citing his 'big time' struggle with the bat. Chase ended 2023 with the second-worst batting average for a Test captain in a calendar year, bemusing the former cricketer.

Former West Indies cricketer and currently a commentator, Ian Bishop, has raised questions over the form of West Indies' Test skipper Roston Chase with both ball and bat, expressing wonder over how his form eluded him so badly after a fine start to his red-ball career and added that WI has "five or six months" to continue him in the side as a batter.

A historically poor year for Chase

Roston ended the second-worst year by a Test captain with bat in hand, scoring just 221 runs in eight Tests and 16 innings at a shockingly low average of 13.81 with no fifties to his name, with the best score of 44. Only Bangladesh's Khaled Mahmud (11.82 in 2003) has a worse batting average in a calendar year as a captain than him.

Decline in the 2020s

In his first 32 Tests from 2016-19, Chase, a utility all-rounder, scored 1,695 runs in 58 innings at an average of 31.38, with five centuries and seven fifties. But come 2020s, his form has deserted him as he has scored 791 runs in 25 Tests with a massive drop in his average to 16.47, with just four fifties in 48 innings.

Bowling form deserts the all-rounder

The 33-year-old's useful off-spin has also ran out of luck and wickets, as he has taken just nine scalps this year in eight Tests at an average of 70.66 and best figures of 2/36, figures which would befit a proper batter trying to develop his bowling, not a full-fledged all-rounder.

Bishop's assessment and the road ahead

Speaking during an interview on iSports i95.5 FM on Saturday as quoted by Jamaica Observer, Bishop said, "Roston, by his own admission, has struggled big time with the bat and it still bemuses me that a guy who can score five Test match hundreds in his first 20 or so Test matches has reached this point of his career, at age 33, where he is struggling to put even moderate innings together."

"So, the West Indies are fortunate in that they have five or six months before their next Test series to try to determine whether Roston is capable, first of all, of holding his place in the team and whether he can continue, so that's their decision to make," Bishop added.

The all-rounder pointed out that the veteran's bowling, averaging in the 70s has not helped him either and coupled with his lack of sharpness as a leader, things are not at all looking good for him. "His bowling has not really fired in the way that he would have hoped, and he is still not as sharp in terms of the captaincy strategically as I was hoping that he would reach, but again, they have five or six months to make that decision as to whether he continues," he added.

A wider problem: Batter development

Bishop says that for him, problems are not limited to captaincy but also to the development of batters, who cannot reach their full potential without some mature batters in the team. "But it is more than the captaincy. For me, the big thing is how we develop batters around the Caribbean. How do we fulfil Alick Athanaze?. You have got one or two other young guys around the Caribbean, and how do we bring them to maturation, otherwise, we are going to chase leadership, we are going to change coaches, and the results still would not be what we expect," he added.

Team's poor fortunes add to woes

Caribbean's poor fortunes in the Test format have not helped Chase either as he does not have the shield of a fine win-loss record to protect his place. This year, WI has played 10 Tests, winning just one, against Pakistan and losing eight. One match has ended in a draw.

The team is languishing at the bottom of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 table, with no wins in eight Tests they have played, losing seven and drawing one. While Windies did show promise while converting a 270-run deficit to a 120-run lead during the Delhi Test against India and almost chasing down 531 against New Zealand at Christchurch, with match ending as a draw with WI at 457/6, they have mostly looked an extremely weak unit. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)