In the great game of Cricket, it’s either a player desperately wanting to hold onto his spot in the team or as with a few revered talents, the teams willing to have a talent stay on for much longer. Rare are the cases where both need one other, whether that’s for imminent stability of a side or for nurturing its brighter future, full of hope.
But in this particular case, the West Indies Cricket needs Roston Chase especially in the longer format and Chase needs to hold onto to that spot as well, possibly for much longer than what some of his naysayers may think.
Think no further than 2016, when in just his very nascent stage of playing Test match cricket, Roston Chase struck a brilliant unbeaten century at Jamaica and that too, against an India led by Dhoni with Kohli in his pomp. The game was rain affected, yes, but unlike some of their innocuous surrenders with the bat, Chase fought on and the team salvaged a draw.
Few hundreds by a Windies bat culminating in a draw have been as lauded as the 137 that came from fending off 269 deliveries. A year later, Chase was at it again, rescuing his side against another sub continental opponent.
In a series widely headlined by Misbah and Younis Khan’s final swansong, it was Roston Chase’s determined act with the bat, a spirited 101 not out from 239 deliveries at Dominica that provided some respite to an otherwise tense West Indies team. The game was lost, as the rest of the Windies batters faltered against a hugely-in-form Yasir Shah, but for all his resilience, Roston Chase won the hearts.
He’d hit another century in India a couple of years later and a few heroic knocks here and there.
But think not for a second that some of his most heart crushing moments for the languidly walking, lanky lad from Barbados have only been in the form of sordid losses suffered on the Caribbean shores.
He’s seen much worse and borne the acrimony of confronting far greater horror as the team’s Test captain just last year.
Exactly a year ago, as the Australians came calling, the West Indies were bundled out for 27 in a Test match at Jamaica. Just 27.
Playing akin to clay soldiers with the most banal weapons possible in the form of the cricket bat, everyone failed that day. Think Hope. Think Greaves and ditto for the captain. As Mitch Starc, far from his prime gobbled up 6 leading West Indian wickets, there stood Roston Chase perhaps just as clueless about the ensuing horror as countless jaded West Indies fans.
Could anything have been worse? It was the same Jamaica ground where a decade back in the day, the West Indies test team saw the rise of a humble trier, the very Barbadian who this time around stood clueless.
And just what did we see a year down the line?
As of June 26, the right hander known for his technically correct ways of batting hit a stoic and typically resolute 194.
His victims, yet again, another opponent from the sub-continent! This time around, Sri Lankan quarter of Rajitha, Fernando, Kumara and Dinusha who had to bear the brunt of Chase’s typical unflappability with bat which generally tends to come to the surface when he familiarise himself with the wicket.
Truth be told in this now famous opening Test held at North Sound at Antigua, Roston Chase played second fiddle to an incredible 401-run stand featuring Amir Jangoo but emerged the front runner for the tag of being the captain who led brilliantly from the front.
And yet, where the trouble lies with this earnest, very honest cricketer is just those lean patches that tend to kick in where much too sudden, Roston Chase appears less motivated, ordinary even with the bat.
For anyone who’s hit a 194, the next big expectation is to go ahead and at least get a fifty but in Chase’s case, his next outing in Test cricket was just 23. While Hope and Greaves struck stupendous hundreds and fought on for a fine drawn match, the test was for Roston Chase to hit runs again.
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After the Sri Lanka contests, the West Indies were to go up against Pakistan and in the wake of the heartbreaking loss of legendary Sir Gary Sobers, the recently held Test at Trinidad would have been the perfect opportunity for their captain to go big again.
But instead with scores of 10 and 8, Roston Chase turned the prospect of seeing something promising mediocre and that was that.
It could be argued the pitch was assuring enough for seamers to wreck damage and the West Indian pace battery did certainly that in bundling out Pakistan for just 120 to win the game by 90 runs. But it was on the very same surface that one of Roston Chase’s closest comrades, compatriot Shai Hope hit 92 and Chanderpaul managed 35 hard fought runs.
As a fan you were left wondering what would Chase do had he bided his time to maybe get a few more runs instead of having to see a proper tailender in Shamar Joseph having to club easy pickings for fours and sixes in his very influential cameo: 38 runs off just 27!
And that’s the thing about Roston Chase that while the talent is there and obvious, the consistency is not always in sight.
You are still enthralled by the big possibility of “what if” then what certainly is in Roston Chase because even after 60 Tests, 110 innings you aren’t elated by what you find.
On the contrary, you are left wanting a lot more than what his 2721 runs convey.
A batting average of 25 couldn’t inspire a future West Indian hopeful to pick up the bat and yet, when you glaze past some of his maverick efforts with the bat, each of those 6 centuries eschew any doubts you’d have about him and suggest he’s a serious talent who by this time should hav become an influential Test cricketer.
What poses further doubt is that true to the choppy waters of unpredictable West Indian selection, Chase may just have a couple or at best, 3 more years as a Test regular. And that’s given the realisation that the West Indies play far lesser Tests than an India or Australia.
Will the sight of 5,000 Test runs, say he gets there, provide a fuller picture of his redoubtable talent?
Which is why where it stands, Roston Lamar Chase should aim at nothing shy than treating each of his forthcoming innings as an able chance to gather useful runs that promise to paint a future riddled with possibility than point to the direction of the lost chances that suggest- what could have been!
He’s a good, strong and positive character. On the cusp of 100 Tests wickets, he has a lot more to offer West Indian cricket than just the knocks he’s played in the past. If anything, the prospect of commanding attention with the bat in future contests featuring India should fire him up. What would you say?
