Lewis considering Test cricket

West Indies white-ball opening batsman Evin Lewis said he is mulling playing Test cricket in the near future but concedes that he needs to play more four-day cricket before he can make that step.

The 29-year-old Trinidadian, an instinctively attacking batsman, has been more pragmatic in his approach during the ongoing three-match series against Sri Lanka which has resulted in scores of 65, 103 and 13 at an average of 60.3. However, notwithstanding batting into the 38th over on Friday, Lewis revealed after the West Indies won by five-wickets, that he plans to bat even deeper into each innings.

Against that background, he was asked whether this more mature approach to opening the batting, means he would consider opening for the West Indies in Test cricket, especially in light of the fact that neither of the current openers – John Campbell or newly appointed captain Kraigg Brathwaite – has been particularly convincing.

“I’ve gotten that question from many people. It’s actually something that I have thought about. The only problem is I haven’t played four-day cricket in a while now and I am not sure four-day cricket is going to be played this year,” he said revealing that even members of his family have been encouraging him to give it a go.

“It’s something that I have given good thought. At the end of the day Test cricket is the ultimate, everyone wants to play Test cricket. Hopefully, when the next four-day season arrives I can play and try and execute and try and get some good scores and hopefully be included. We will see what goes.”

The ‘new’ approach to his batting Lewis said began against Ireland in January 2020 when he had scores of 99 not out, 7 and 102 and planned to continue with this approach in the Sri Lanka series.

“I said this series I am going to give myself a fair chance. At the same time, you want to get off to a good start in the Power Play. I think I played that same way against Ireland last year. It’s something I have been working on in 50-over cricket. I want to try and pace my innings knowing I can otherwise make up in the middle overs and at the end, so it’s a work in progress.”

Lewis has scored 1778 runs in ODI cricket. He has four centuries and nine 50s and averages 37.82

Meanwhile, he admitted it was hurtful to miss out on playing for the squad due to fitness concerns and reveals he took steps to ensure the incident did not repeat itself.

Lewis was surprisingly left out of the squad last February, ahead of the team’s tour of Sri Lanka, after failing to meet Cricket West Indies’ minimum fitness requirements.  Later in the year, the player turned down the opportunity to tour New Zealand citing injury and safety concerns.

A few months later, however, and Lewis has emerged from his time off in solid form. His blossoming partnership with left-hander Shai Hope was one of the highlights in a series which the West Indies dominated.

“I’ve been doing a lot of gym work and running. Due to the last (CWI) fitness test, before this series, I failed it. It hurt, to be doing so well and knowing my fitness was the problem,” Lewis told members of the media via a Zoom press conference.

“So, I went back home and did a lot of running and a lot of gym… Straight down until after the Bangladesh series, I’ve been training hard. I’m hungrier for it (WI selection) right now,” he said.

Ahead of the Sri Lanka series batsmen Shimron and all-rounder Roston Chase, along with pace bowlers  Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas all failed to meet the minimum fitness requirement for selection.  Chase and Hetmyer later passed the tests. (SportsMax)