Houston can’t help in this case, but Australia has a problem. When the top order batting sets itself for launch of late, the results tend to be less Nasa, more SpaceX. Which is to say, the whole thing blows up. Ten days after scraping past 200 in both innings of the World Test Championship final, the specialist bats had another rapid unscheduled disassembly in Bridgetown, bowled out by West Indies for 180 to start the first Test. No Australian team in the Caribbean has ever made so few after choosing to bat.
You can trace a line back to the last time Australia played West Indies, in Brisbane. That first month of 2024, Shamar Joseph tore them up for 209 and won the match. In the 18 months since, Australia have been bowled out for 164 in Wellington, 256 in Christchurch, 104 and 238 in Perth, 234 in Melbourne, and 181 in Sydney. The fact that they managed to come back and win most of those Tests is impressive, but has relied on late-order runs and late-game rallies. It shouldn’t disguise the fact that the batting hasn’t delivered.
Australia brought three innovations into this Test: Sam Konstas in a bid to be the long-term opener, Josh Inglis in the middle order to replace Marnus Labuschagne, and Cameron Green getting a second Test at No3 though his career has been spent further down. All fell for single figures, gone with 22 on the board. After a recovery between Usman Khawaja and Travis Head of 89, the second part of the slide totalled 69-7.
It was Joseph who set this up, seeming to pick up exactly where he’d left off in Brisbane. Bowling from the Joel Garner End, he has half the height but can project as much presence, generating pace, constantly testing players with a line that twitches off the seam and bounce that can variously skid or jump. In no time at all he was smashing Konstas on the knee roll, reviewing it to show three reds, then drawing edges from Green and Khawaja.
Joseph was on the heater, but for a time there was the painful sense that this magic spell of possibility would be wasted. Both those edges were dropped in the cordon: Green’s was the first touch of the ball for Brandon King on debut, Khawaja’s the first touch for Roston Chase as captain. The omens were bad. Joseph buttered up to get a second nick from Green, going hard at the ball as he does in defence, and Inglis made a rare bad decision in Australian colours, deciding that the end of Joseph’s spell was a good time for a Test No4 to manufacture a six over square leg. Wicketkeeper Shai Hope collected the high top edge, Jayden Seales the wicket.
But Khawaja was still there, settling in, reprieved once, then a second time as King dived past a catch at gully. Travis Head was there, with his peculiar record against West Indies: two golden ducks, a 38 not out, then a 99, a 119, and a 175. To put it another way, as per the figures when he walked in, if Head gets off the mark against West Indies he averages 143. He soon drove the first four of the day, Khawaja took on a hook for six, and while the latter mostly batted time, Head’s bursts of aggressive driving kept reaching the boundary that a slow outfield otherwise put beyond reach, scoring nine fours while the rest of his team managed ten.
But as they built, through a curiously long spell after lunch for medium pacer Justin Greaves, Joseph was gathering steam for his next burst. What a burst it was: Khawaja beaten for pace to edge a pull behind for 47, then Webster on 11 getting a work of art, angled in, seaming away, made to look even better by a clueless push across the line while the ball took middle and off stumps.
Repeatedly, Joseph was robbed of his fifth, later with another King drop off Nathan Lyon, but the worst injustice was dealt to him before that by third umpire Adrian Holdstock. After Head slashed at the ball and a not-out review found a bottom edge on the sound graph, a catch that carried clear as day to Hope was ruled not out, despite replays showing the ball rolling up the keeper’s fingers into the glove. One frame where the squashed padding was obscured drew the umpire’s interpretation. This prevarication from ICC officials is something the governing body has to address.
Luckily for West Indies, it wasn’t costly. Three balls before tea, then two balls after it, two South Australian left-handers fed cut shots to the cordon, good bounce sending the ball off the top edge. Alex Carey on 8 let Chase redeem himself with a good grab at first slip before Hope took the next chance from Head for 59, with Seales and Greaves the beneficiaries. Then it was Seales charging to a late five-for, more bounce accounting for Starc’s edge on 0, Pat Cummins smacking 28 fast runs before drilling to mid off, and Josh Hazlewood snorted out off the glove for 4.
With a surprising hour and a half left to them on day one, Australia’s bowlers made some amends, with three top-order wickets and the nightwatchman shared between the fast bowlers, leaving West Indies 57-4, still 123 runs behind. The guilty fielders, King and Chase, are the not out players with the chance to make amends with the bat. Australia’s bowling strength and West Indies batting weakness may well combine to make this another match that the visitors can rescue, but when they leave Barbados, they will take their batting troubles with them.
