It’s an terrible good distance from Antigua to Adelaide.
But West Indies Test debutant Devon Thomas can thank the talents he honed on the seashores of the Caribbean for his shock bowling prowess within the metropolis of church buildings this week.
That Thomas is even enjoying within the two-match Test collection towards Australia is a shock; at 33, there have been occasions he thought his likelihood to characterize West Indies had been and gone.
But that the back-up wicketkeeper is bowling spin is much more of a shock, and factors to a debilitating damage disaster that has claimed pacemen Kyle Mayers, Jayden Seales, Kemar Roach and Marquino Mindley as its victims.
“I hadn’t bowled in five months (before the tour),” Thomas mentioned.
“So coming here, I’m a bit stiff.”
Most shocking of all is that the comparatively unknown gloveman completed the primary innings of the second Test as West Indies’ greatest bowler with 2-53 from his 14 overs.
For comparability, bowlers Anderson Phillip and Roston Chase completed with figures of 0-115 and 0-117, respectively, and worse economies than Thomas.
The debutant first dismissed star opener Usman Khawaja on 62 to offer his aspect a much-needed breakthrough on day one.
“When I got a first wicket, Khawaja, I looked at his stats and realised he averages 91 (Khawaja averages 85.08 this year). So he was a good first wicket,” Thomas mentioned.
But Thomas wasn’t completed there; on day two, he dispatched possible participant of the collection Marnus Labuschagne (163) simply as he seemed primed to collaborate with Travis Head on an impossibly giant whole.
His bowling feats have not come fully out of nowhere, although.
“I used to play and bowl on the beach, I used to play a lot of beach cricket,” Thomas mentioned.
“I started my career bowling off-spin but then after a wicketkeeper got injured, I said I’d take up wicketkeeping from there.
“I used to be bowling within the nets, I feel in 2016 I bowled to Australia within the nets in Antigua after they had a tour there.
“I got a few wickets. They didn’t want to face me at the time. I bowled a lot quicker.”
Thomas’s dismissal of Khawaja was sufficient to pique the curiosity of injured Australian paceman Pat Cummins, who approached him within the warm-up forward of day two.
“He was just telling me, what else can you do? If I could dance as well as bowling, ‘keep,” Thomas defined.
“I said I could dance … but I can’t sing.”
