Is Yannic Cariah a viable option for the 2024 T20 World Cup?
Cariah made his T20I debut with just 3 T20 games under his belt. Is he the answer to West Indies' wristspin woes with the 2024 T20 World Cup drawing ever closer?
Pictured here is Yannic Cariah receiving his T20I cap from Akeal Hosein during a T20I series against Australia last October, played just 2 weeks before the T20 World Cup to be played there.
Cariah was also a part of the West Indies squad for the tournament, though he did not play a game.
And all he had to do for all this was play just 3 T20s across a timeframe of nearly a decade.
The last T20 he played came all the way back in 2016 when he played an Eliminator match for the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) against the Saint Lucia Zouks (before they were rebranded to the Kings), bowling a solitary over that went for 9 runs.
It was one of the two matches he played that season.
The match he made his T20 debut in came even way back in 2013, during the inaugural season of the league against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, back when Trinbago was known as the Red Steel, and Cariah didn’t bowl.
And since the inception of the league, no West Indies player has made their T20I debut without having a proper breakthrough season in the league, until Cariah that is.
In spite of not having played in the league for 6 seasons, Cariah was still handed a T20I cap.
And it’s not like he performed in a regional T20 tournament on the basis of which he was selected as a trump card; the West Indies do not have one, something former skipper Kieron Pollard continues to echo the need of.
Instead, he was selected based on his performances in last year’s Super50, and more out of the lack of wristspin options the Windies have at their disposal that enabled Cariah to be a “late bloomer at 31.”
Since his record season in 2019, Hayden Walsh Jr has continued to struggle immensely and hasn’t played for the West Indies for just a bit over a year now.
And since the leg-spin revolution led by Rashid Khan in 2016, one of the biggest requirements to the foundations of a high-quality T20 team is having a leggie, as variations are a big key to picking up wickets in modern-day T20s.
One such variation legspinners can bowl is the googly, which you’ll often hear commentators talk on air about how effective it is as a wicket-taking option, depending on how well you can disguise it and deceive the batter, as for most of them it is quite difficult to pick the variation from the hand and look to read it off the line of the ball instead.
But in spite of this and the dilemma West Indies find themselves in, does Cariah truly fit the bill for the 2024 T20 World Cup?
As mentioned above, a leg-spinner brings some wicket-taking edge to a team. There is a light-hearted notion that wristspinners have the charm of getting wickets with even poor deliveries.
The West Indies have also not shown confidence in someone like Kevin Sinclair, who is an off-spinner. Sinclair could potentially complement Akeal Hosein’s left-arm spin, but that is a route the West Indies haven’t taken currently.
And CricViz analyst Karthikeya Manchela points out that there are promising attributes to Cariah’s craft.
"He’s capable of turning the ball both ways and has a googly that he can get good purchase against both left-handers and right-handers,” says Kartikeya.
“Cariah is also capable of varying his pace, as well as getting a good amount of turn on his legbreaks on supportive surfaces.” he continued.
But there’s an issue: he doesn’t possess enough consistency in his lengths to make him a constant threat.
This is especially prevalent against batters who do well against spin. Cariah could be useful against lesser-ranked teams as seen against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) right before the World Cup Qualifiers in June this year. However, the West Indies can’t afford to take a player just for his potency against lower-ranked nations.
Cariah is amongst the rare breed of leg-spinners who don’t possess a dominant googly. Like Yuzvendra Chahal, Cariah tends to depend a lot more on his legbreaks.
But the best leg-spinners in the world right now like Rashid Khan and Wanindu Hasaranga are more known for their googlies.
Even if one takes the example of Adam Zampa, albeit he doesn’t have a cracking googly, the New South Welshman makes up for it with a superb slider complemented by impeccable consistency, a big reason why he has begun to be highly rated by many in recent times in limited-overs cricket.
Interestingly though, Cariah has a better record against left-handers striking at 29 compared to 44.7 against right-handers in ODIs.
Even though the sample size is low, one would expect a legbreak-dominant bowler to fare better against right-handers as the ball turns away from them.
His economy rate against both also isn’t under 6 runs an over, further proving his inconsistency with lengths, for when a leg-spinner turns the ball just one way while being inconsistent, it becomes easy for the batters to line him up.
Thus far, Cariah is yet to bowl in this season’s CPL with the Patriots’ first two fixtures being washouts. However, as Kartikeya also echoes, it is needless to say that the upcoming matches will be a massive one for Cariah, not just in terms of his franchise cricket future, but also from a T20I perspective.
“Given the lack of wrist spin options in the West Indies and Hayden Walsh’s inconsistent international performances, Cariah needed to do very little to make it to the 2022 T20 World Cup squad,” Kartikeya said.
“The CPL is typically a springboard to make it to international cricket, so Cariah’s selection was fairly unusual. However, now as the incumbent in the limelight, it is imperative he pushes for a regular place in the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots starting XI and delivers performances that justify donning the maroon.”
And with the likes of Kevin Sinclair, Roston Chase, Kofi James, Gudakesh Motie, and co having a chance to impress the selectors this CPL with next year’s T20 World Cup right around the corner, the pressure on Cariah to deliver performances will be turned up to eleven.
It will make the answer crystal clear as to whether or not Yannic Cariah is a viable option for the 2024 T20 World Cup and the West Indies wristspin woes, or if they are better off taking a different route such as picking an extra seam bowling all-rounder like Dominic Drakes or Keemo Paul.