I definitely don't agree with everything
@qpeedore has written there.
Let's have a quick look at the WIndies attack:
It is worth noting the caveat that the West Indies' dismal batting in this time (averaging 22.21 against pace and 25.63 against spin) makes it harder for their bowlers to stand out against their theoretical replacement players, but it really does hammer home the importance of
Jason Holder in the attack. He is absolutely one of the leading Test cricketers in the world and should be treated as such.
Kemar Roach also performs notably better than his replacement player, and should be one of the West Indies' first names on the team sheet.
Roston Chase absolutely should not be selected as a first-choice spinner: his replacement player is 34% better than he, and that's no way to build a Test side. He would be a respectable second spinner, and arguably outbowled Dominic Bess for much of the Second Test.
Rakeem Cornwall draws on a small sample size, but judging by his sample so far is absolutely the best option as WIndies spinner.
The final seamer's spot is tricky - ideally you want an express pace bowler, but
Shannon Gabriel is the relative weak link in the bowling attack with a VARP of -30.25 stemming from a combination of worse economy than many sub-Saharan nations (over three and a half an over) and the West Indies' batting against fast bowling rather serving to skew the statistical sample. My personal opinion is that he's not -30% bad - not even close - but that he couldn't complain if he got replaced.
He should not, however, be replaced by
Alzarri Joseph, who suffers particularly by not knowing what kind of a bowler he is. Is he a seamer, a swing bowler, a pace bowler or a stock bowler? Currently he's none of those things in particular.
My selection for the final seamer's spot at the Third Test would be
Chemar Holder, who isn't the finished article by any means but is an immensely promising express pace bowler who impressed particularly with his commitment when I watched him playing for West Indies 'A'.
- - -
As for the batting, I'm by no means a
Jermaine Blackwood fan. I don't appreciate his temperament, and don't think he's a long-term solution. But equally, he's got a bunch of runs while
Shai Hope is technically and mentally confused, so it's Hope, not Blackwood, who makes way. I don't even need to dip into his VARP stats in the last couple of years to know that he's done badly, but for the sake of hilarity let's look anyway.
Hope has scored 462 runs @ 18.48 in the top order, with a solitary 50 in 26 innings. His VARP is a dismal 40.95%, meaning that a replacement could be expected to be nearly twice as productive.
As for
John Campbell, a questionable temperament, Test and first-class batting averages of under 30, and a habit of dropping important catches all serve to make me want him out of the side.
The rest of the batting is
okay. It's not going to win the game by itself, but might be good enough to make room for their bowling attack. So who would I pick?
Kraigg Brathwaite
Shayne Moseley
Shamarh Brooks
Joshua da Silva
Roston Chase
Jermaine Blackwood
Shane Dowrich
Jason Holder
Rahkeem Cornwall
Kemar Roach
Chemar Holder
That's a LOT of Barbados.