‘I can’t wait to get my hands on him’: Shamar Joseph’s afterglow still burning bright
The most influential player in Friday’s one-dayer between Australia and West Indies might not even be at the MCG.
Shamar Joseph is on his way home to the Caribbean but the impact of his Gabba heroics is still being felt by a Windies team riding high from one of the biggest upsets in the modern game.
Shamar Joseph celebrates with teammates at the Gabba.Credit: Getty
As a player, the Windies’ limited-overs coach Daren Sammy led the regional side to victory in the 2012 and 2016 Twenty20 World Cups. He rates the Test win as the finest moment he has seen for the Windies outside those global titles.
“Watching that Test match, it’s the third-best thing I’ve seen in West Indies,” Sammy, a former captain in all three formats for the side, said.
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“The young man Shamar’s inspiring performance, when somebody performs like that the team rises. And it was so good to watch. We see the smile on my face every time you go back to that, and I just hope my men whenever challenges come they could just remember that if you push through there’s always gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Despite only four games of domestic white-ball cricket, Joseph has already been identified by Sammy as a definite all-format player.
“I can’t wait to get my hands on him in this squad,” Sammy said. “What he’s done is create a really good headache for me.”
Australia will again start warm favourites to win the series-opener, as they were for the two Tests against a team featuring four debutants, but the Windies’ feats in Brisbane have reinforced to the visitors anything is possible in a country which has long held a soft spot for the Calypso Kings.
“I think as a West Indies team, you know the history that comes with Australia dating all the way back to Frank Worrell, we’ve always been a loved side here,” Sammy said. “So to see what the boys did, in spite of all the challenges, the inspiration coming from that, I’m pretty sure looking at my boys they’re quite motivated.”
The Australians are world champions by name only, with only five players from their victorious World Cup XI available, though Sammy bristled at suggestions it improved the Windies’ chances of another boilover.
“So what, does that make us equal?” Sammy said.
Once the powerhouse of the international game, the Windies failed to qualify for last year’s World Cup, beaten for a berth by Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, and finishing behind Scotland and Zimbabwe.
For Australia, this game marks the start of the long road to the 2027 World Cup in Africa. While boards protest about the primacy of international cricket, the 50-over format is clearly a distant third in priorities for the men, and these matches shape as research and development for selectors.
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After a busy Test summer, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have been rested to freshen up for the Trans Tasman Trophy in New Zealand, while Glenn Maxwell returns for the T20s later this month – a key lead-in to the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean.
Featuring two debutants – Lance Morris and Xavier Bartlett – and another two playing their first international on home soil in Aaron Hardie and Matt Short, the Australia XI that will take the field on Friday is a team picked with arguably more emphasis on the future than the present, even if it is the best available.
Only five players from the first match of the last World Cup cycle in early 2020 made it to the final in Ahmedabad. It took until the 50th of 55 games for selectors to find the XI that would take them to the title. The decider was just their third and final game together.
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