Kirk Edwards

Kirk Edwards was one player who showed a lot of promise from a very early stage. He was the vice captain of the West Indies U-19 team in the 2004 Youth World Cup. He was soon a regular member of the West Indies A team too. A string of good scores in 2009 and 2010 at the domestic level saw him being called up for the one day series against Sri Lanka in 2010 but it was postponed due to incessant rain. Edwards had to wait longer to make his debut. It came in the 2011 World Cup, when he replaced the injured Adrian Barath. He played only one game in the tournament, against India and was also named in the squad for the series against Pakistan and India soon after.

He played eight ODIs in the two series but failed to make an impression. His highest score was 40*. Despite this he was picked for the last Test match against India and this is when he shot to fame. With the repeated failures of the West Indies' batting, they desperately needed someone solid in the middle order. Edwards displayed remarkable maturity in his very first game. He was wrongly adjudged out in the first innings but he put it behind him and made a stubborn century in the second innings, becoming only the 14th West Indian batsman to score a century on his Test debut. This played a crucial part in West Indies securing a draw and more crucially, West Indies rejoiced at finding a number three with immense promise. Since then, he has scored one Test ton and four half centuries but after a poor run in 2012, has not featured in Test matches for West Indies.

Inconsistent batting performances coupled with injury scares have pushed Kirk Edwards far from the limelight.

Following a long hiatus, Edwards made his presence felt at the top of the order in New Zealand towards the close of 2013. Asked to open in the aftermath of the delayed arrival of Brathwaite, Edwards compiled fifties in the first Test tests to spark off a revival of sorts.

He followed it up with his maiden ODI ton-an aggressive 123, which sealed a mammoth win for West Indies. It will be interesting to see if Edwards can cash in on his second coming.

By Ganesh Chandrasekaran

As of April 2014