Lorenzo Di-Mauro Hayes is the Australian Cricket Society’s literary scholar and is mentored by writer John Harms. This is his latest report for the Australian Cricket Society.
If what we wanted from the Australian-West Indies Test series was a little more confidence going into the Ashes series this summer, then it wasn’t much of a success.
That goes right to the very top of the batting order. The search for a confident pair of openers continues. The shadow of David Warner still lurks over this Test side. Clearly, Khawaja and Konstas were both poor in this series. Both are under a lot of pressure, Konstas seemingly more so, given his memorable Test debut and perceived potential.
That is probably unfair, given Konstas has time on his side assuming he is good enough in the long run. If he goes back to the Sheffield Shield for a few years, then returns to the Test side in a few years, no one would be too worried about the years away. It may be for the best in the long run.
Khawaja doesn’t have that same time. In the second innings of the First Test, both openers were dismissed in poor ways. While many criticised Konstas for a sloppy shot that resulted in him dragging the ball onto the stumps, there was less attention paid to Khawaja. Not long after, he burned a review after he was given out lbw. Hawkeye showed us the ball was hitting middle stump. There was clear nerviness for the Australian openers.
It used to be said a grade cricketer was only six innings away from playing for Australia. Three centuries at grade level will help you get selected to play for your State. Three centuries for your State will help you get selected to play for your nation. That won’t happen this summer, no one is coming from that far back. However, there is a chance that something similar might.
This is a summer where a few big innings opening for your State will put you in contention for the first Ashes Test in late November. The most likely candidates would be Marcus Harris, Cam Bancroft and Matt Renshaw who all have Baggy Greens. There is also Jake Weatherald who was brilliant at domestic level last season. The selectors could also go with Labuschagne as they did in the World Test Championship Final. Those opening matches in the Sheffield Shield are going to be so important and will dictate the nation’s confidence levels going into a home Ashes series.
In spite of plenty of poor starts to innings throughout the tour, there was always someone who played an innings that somewhat rescued the situation. Travis Head made 59 in the first innings of the First Test. Then three promising performances in the second innings, from Head dismissed for 61, Webster who made 63 and Carey who made 65, put the match out of the West Indies reach.
Webster and Carey each made it to the 60s in the first innings of the second Test, one where Carey would win man-of-the-match. Smith and Green, who didn’t look comfortable in his initial return to the side, put up some decent totals in this tough batting series. Both made it past 50 in the second innings of that match.
Green also made a score of 42 in the second innings of the Third Test and guided Australia to 121. Which is not a great score, but it so easily could have been much worse. It was a hard series for the batters, but the Australian middle order performed well under pressure. The pitches certainly helped the bowlers throughout the series, with a fair amount of grass cover across all three.
By contrast, the bowlers had a great series. Any time Australia got into trouble, the bowlers put on another brilliant display. This was highlighted by the extraordinary way the series ended. The Starc haul and the Boland hat-trick helped bring this series to an insane ending. From the first ball, Australia was on top, quite literally as John Campbell was caught behind by substitute wicketkeeper Joe Inglis. When Starc also took the wickets of Anderson and King, he had a triple wicket maiden. If it wasn’t for a 15-run 7th wicket partnership, the West Indies would have made history with the lowest Test innings score. But at the start of the 13th over, Scott Boland proved what a true champion he is. Three deliveries, three wickets; a caught, a leg before wicket and a bowled, if you don’t mind. That statue outside the MCG is surely going to be commissioned any day now.
So, after that series, we haven’t really learned anything new. The openers are not in great form; the middle order can get Australia out of an awkward situation. The bowlers are the stars of the show who continue to impress even though they are closer to the end of their careers than the start. Despite the West Indies showing a bit of promise with the ball, especially from Shamar Joseph who was excellent again, they aren’t at the Australian level right now. This is quite sad given how dominant a force the best West Indian teams were.
This year, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of an important moment in Australian cricket. Thirty years ago, was the 1995 Australian tour of the West Indies. In that tour, Australia finally beat the mighty ‘Windies’ 2-1 in a four-Test series in their own backyard. Steve Waugh’s 200 in the last Test of that series in Jamaica, is considered one of his greatest innings. It knocked the West Indies off the world number 1 perch for the first time in 15 years.
The West Indies are a long way from being the top of the rankings. With the direction that Test cricket is going, these series might happen less often. The potential for a tier structure, especially if there is no promotion and regulation, could radically reduce or eliminate these Test series. Now if there is genuine promotion and regulation, the West Indies not being in the same tier would be justifiable. However, if they are not in the Australian tier, without a route to the top division, that would be a travesty. However, with the Ashes on the horizon, the players won’t have time to dwell on what has happened in the Caribbean. England will come to the series off the back of an extraordinary Test series at home against India which finished 2-2. The English will be eager to acquire the famous urn back. If similar magic occurs this summer, it will be another series to remember. It also provides plenty of players the chance to recover from poor performances and give several champion players one more summer to be proud of.
More cricket stories from Lorenzo and other writers can be found at the Australian Cricket Society website.
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