Alzarri Joseph warned yesterday West Indies were prepared to give Australia a tough run in the two-Test series starting here this week, and said a collective effort would be critical in any successful bid.
West Indies arrived here late last month with an inexperienced 15-man squad, headlined by seven uncapped players and without the services of leading all-rounder Jason Holder and vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood.
And even with the odds already stacked against the Caribbean side, Joseph said there would be no backing down on their part.
“We expect to come here and give them a challenge. We’re here to win two Test matches, [we’re] not just here to play so we’re going to come out and give it our best,” Joseph told a media huddle.
“For us, it’s about being brave, being positive but everyone has their different ways of going about it. So it’s about bringing those ways together as one brand of cricket.”
He added: “It should be a full team effort. We’re all here, we’re all here to do a job so it’s just not one player.”
Captain Kraigg Brathwaite (87 Tests) and veteran fast bowler Kemar Roach (79) are the squad’s two most experienced players, and are the only ones with more than 30 Tests to their names.
Joseph has played 30 and wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva, 22, while the other four with Test experience – Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Alick Athanaze, Kirk McKenzie and Gudakesh Motie – have played only 15 matches among them.
Zachary McCaskie, Tevin Imlach, Justin Greaves, Kavem Hodge, Kevin Sinclair, Akeem Jordan and Shamar Joseph are the rookies called up by the Desmond Haynes-led selection panel but Joseph said they were all champing at the bit.
“Everyone’s here wanting to play for the West Indies,” said Joseph, who will spearhead the pace attack alongside Roach.
“It’s an opportunity for everyone to represent their country so I don’t think there’s any nervousness in the camp. I think it’s more of excitement.
“They’re all different players so they all bring something new to the table – they all bring a different style of play to the table. It’s all good for us.”
West Indies enjoyed some strong performances in the three-day game at Karen Rolton Oval, Da Silva hitting a hundred, Hodge carving out a brace of half-centuries and Greaves and Brathwaite getting fifties.
Roach, Joseph and fellow pacer Shamar Joseph managed a brace of wickets in the the Cricket Australia XI first innings while off-spinner Sinclair picked up three in the second innings.
“I think we’ve had really good preparation. We’ve been here for a couple weeks now so I think in the practice game, we got what we basically needed out of it,” said the 27-year-old.
“We’ve been going through our paces, getting what we need to get done. Basically we had a couple days of nets and then the three-day game so that’s basically what we had going on.”
He added: “For me, it was just getting used to conditions. I’ve been playing a lot of white-ball cricket so for me it is getting back into the red ball lengths and holding that for longer periods.”
The first Test bowls off on Wednesday (Tuesday, 7:30 pm, Eastern Caribbean time). (CMC)