West Indies vs England Test Batting

In between posts on the Napier test I offer some of my Series Score data for the batsmen during recent Tests between England and the West Indies.

England

Strauss      21
Collingwood  18
Pietersen    10
Prior         8
Bopara        8
Ambrose       4
Cook          2
Sidebottom   -6
Bell         -6
Swan         -6
Anderson     -7
Panesar     -10
Flintoff    -12
Harmison    -13
Shah        -14
Broad       -24

Seeing Bell at -6 and Shah at -14 tells you that England need to think again, as that Scottish song puts it. And one really wants a better performance that that from Pietersen. Frankly, I fear the worst for this England team this summer. They'll probably be able to exploit home advantage enough against the West Indies that they'll get revenge in the first series, but at the moment I see them getting massacred by Australia.

West Indies

Sarwan       47
Chanderpaul   7
Gaye          6
Ramdin        1
Nash         -1
Baker        -5
Marshall     -5
Simmons      -6
Taylor       -9
DS Smith    -10
Benn        -13
RO Hinds    -14
Edwards     -22
Powell      -22

It was Sarwan that won it on the batting front. Ramdin also deserves some credit for taking the pressure off Gayle and Chanderpaul. One might consider Nash disappointing, but a -1 is still moderately useful

Thinking strategically, West Indies really need another batsman, and probably two. Chanderpaul will not be around forever, and who is going to take his place? I suspect his career will end abruptly. One series he'll stink, then he'll stink again, but not having an alternative they'll be tempted to keep putting him in so he'll stink some more, putting an ugly punctuation mark on a wonderful career.