Birmingham: West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite is optimistic his side will be better for the experience of being whitewashed by England when they face South Africa next month.
England hammered the West Indies by 10 wickets in the third Test at Edgbaston on Sunday to complete a 3-0 series clean sweep.
West Indies have little time to absorb the lessons from a chastening campaign, which also included an innings and 114-run defeat at Lord’s and a 241-run loss at Trent Bridge, before they begin a two-match Test series at home to the Proteas in Trinidad on August 7.
The problems that had plagued them throughout their tour of England were on show again at Edgbaston, with the West Indies reducing England to 54-5 in their first innings only for the hosts to recover to 376 all out.
West Indies’ Mikyle Louis and Kavem Hodge both made second-innings fifties but no other batsman managed more than 12 in a total of 175 all out, with the tail blown away by fast bowler Mark Wood as the express quick took 5-40.
That left the hosts needing just 82 to win, with England captain Ben Stokes treating the West Indies pace attack as if they were club bowlers during a 24-ball fifty including nine fours and a six.
“It was a tough series, for sure,” said Brathwaite.
“It goes back to the fact that we didn’t show a lot of discipline with the ball ... We let them off the hook a lot of times and they were scoring way too fast.”
But the 31-year-old opener, a veteran of 92 Tests, did not spare the West Indies batsmen — including himself — from criticism.
“Batting-wise, I think we didn’t get enough second-innings runs in the last two Test matches,” said Brathwaite, out for a duck second time around at Edgbaston.
“So I think both batting-wise and bowling-wise, we just didn’t come consistently to the party throughout the entire Test.”
But he was confident a quick turnaround to the South Africa series would benefit the West Indies.
“That’s good, I like it,” he said. “It means that we have the chance to participate in two more Test matches against a good attack. That is what it is about.
The all-rounder, opening in place of the injured Zak Crawley, struck nine fours and a six in a whirlwind half-century as England chased down a victory target of 82 in a mere 7.2 overs to complete a 3-0 series whitewash.
Below AFP Sport looks at how Stokes's innings compares with the fastest fifties scored in Test cricket (balls for 50, player, team, opposition, venue, year):
21 Misbah-ul-Haq Pakistan v Australia, Abu Dhabi 2014
23 David Warner Australia v Pakistan, Sydney 2017
24 Jacques Kallis South Africa v Zimbabwe, Cape Town 2005
24 Ben Stokes England v West Indies, Birmingham 2024
25 Shane Shillingford West Indies v New Zealand, Kingston 2014
26 Shahid Afridi Pakistan v India, Bangalore 2005
26 Mohammad Ashraful Bangaldesh v India, Mirpur 2007
26 Dale Steyn South Africa v West Indies, Port Elizabeth 2014
27 Yousuf Youhana Pakistan v South Africa, Cape Town 2003
28 Foffie Williams West Indies v England, Bridgetown 1948
28 Ian Botham England v India, Delhi 1981
28 Chris Gayle West Indies v New Zealand Port of Spain 2014
28 Colin de Grandhomme New Zealand v Sri Lanka Christchurch 2018
28 Rishabh Pant India v Sri Lanka Bengaluru 2022
“Once we learn from this, playing these games is a plus for us, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
England needed just 10 playing days of a scheduled 15 to wrap up the whitewash.
But West Indies, with many members of their squad unfamiliar with English conditions, were not helped by having just a solitary warm-up match a modest County Select XI.
‘Bravery’
And the ongoing gap between cricket’s financially wealthiest and poorest red-ball teams was evident from the fact that three leading West Indies batsmen — Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell — are currently all involved in English cricket’s domestic Hundred competition instead of having featured in the Test series.
The West Indies lone century in the whole series was Kavem Hodge’s 120 — his maiden Test hundred — at Trent Bridge.
“We had a significant number of players getting to 50, if two or three had been converted ... we would have been in a far better position,” West Indies coach Andre Coley said.
But he took heart from Louis’s 57, the opener’s maiden Test fifty, with the 23-year-old surviving several fiery Wood deliveries on Sunday.
“There were instances where we really stood up, it’s about replicating that and having a level of bravery,” Coley added.
