West Indian legendary pacer Courtney Walsh has on Tuesday (July 2) heaped praise on the Barbados fast bowler Kemar Roach, calling him a “genuine great” ahead of the upcoming England-West Indies Test series.
Roach will be a key bowler for West Indies when they begin their Wisden Trophy defense against England with the opening Test of the three-match-Test series at Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Wednesday (July 8) – where the star speedster eyes his 200th Test scalps.
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He is just seven wickets away from becoming the ninth West Indian fast bowler to reach 200 Test wickets and the pacer would certainly look to achieve the feat in the Southampton Test.
No West Indian could achieve that feat since Curtly Ambrose achieved it in 1994 and Walsh is excited to Roach achieve the “tremendous milestone” and even went on claim that the pacer can “easily” achieve the milestone of 300 Test wickets with proper “workload management”.
Walsh told ESPNcricinfo: “Tremendous milestone, to have another West Indian up in that bracket (200 Test wickets) is awesome. Kemar has been a friend of mine forever and I'm just happy for him.”
He further added, “I can't wait for this to happen. I hope that he doesn't take long to get there. Hopefully, if he can get it [the milestone] out of the way in the first Test match, it'll be perfect as he could then relax and enjoy the rest of the series.”
The 57-year-old, who was the first bowler in the world to take 500 Test wickets, also believes that Roach has improved his game a lot whether be it his art, his skills, or the conditions and how to adapt. The was also impressed by the work ethic and patience shown by Roach in his bowling over the years.
Walsh further added, “He's got to a stage where he knows his game, knows what he wants to do, and how to go about doing it. He has got a stage where he knew his own personal game, knew what he wanted, knew how to go about it setting batsmen up and trying to get wickets and his patience level is very, very good. His patience shows he will stick around, and he knows what to do and how to go about achieving that. To me, that is what has got him to be as consistent as he is now.
His work ethic has gone up as well and he's doing all he can do to be one of the greats. He' s a genuine great. His achievement shows that. What I like about him is his mannerism: he's always cool and collected and he's prepared to work.”
While saying Roach can reach the next milestone of 300 Test wickets, Walsh also pointed out that the pacer will get better with age and become even better bowler once he knows how to manage his body and maintain his fitness level.
The former pacer said, “Workload management is something that they can look at it. I don't think he has played a lot of shorter versions of the game. He has played a couple of ODIs and he's still good enough to do that. But it's up to him as an individual as well to set the standards, set the goals he wants to achieve. He will get 300 quite easily once the workload management is good and he is playing consistent cricket What you don't want to happen to him is that every time he comes back, he starts all over again.”
Walsh signed off by saying, “So, he has got to find a way and the groove of keeping that momentum going. Maintaining his body fitness and his skill-set. He'll get better with age and then just knowing his body and be consistent with that. Once he knows how to manage his body and maintain that level of fitness and performance level match-wise and get match fitness going, then he's in a good place.”
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
