Why Odean Smith must get it together before the 2024 T20 World Cup
Why Odean has to fit in the Mission Caribbean jigsaw puzzle
Let’s be real, when you see Odean Smith play, you’re probably thinking that the opposition will score 15-20 runs above par if they’re setting the target, or if they’re chasing and Odean bowls his full quota, the game won’t go to the final wire, far from it.
If he’s playing for a team you support, you’re likely hoping the entire batting lineup performs to make up for yet another disastrous Odean bowling spell, or are literally praying to the heavens that the captain doesn’t use him as a fifth or sixth bowler.
And if you’re a supporter of the West Indies, you must often find yourself hoping Nicky P or Hetty can save the day once again.
For most T20 cricket fans these days, he’s likely categorized as “meme bowler,” a category bowlers such as Jade Dernbach, Jaydev Unadkat, Ashoke Dinda, and Usman Shinwari find themselves in.
I myself have also very openly criticized him on Twitter. It seems as though he is a spray-and-pray bowler whose stock ball is full tosses down the legside, and it’s come to a junction where I now strongly believe teams are better off using him solely as a finisher rather than an allrounder.
And yet, at the same time, I have a soft corner for him, for it's not the first time I’ve written an article on him; I’ve nicknamed him Volcano Odean!
For me, it is not farfetched to say that he can be the next Andre Russell, for he has shown the traits of an elite T20 allrounder. But for most reading this now, you probably think I am a madman, but hear me out, it's a love-hate relationship!
Odean has shown the ability to bowl 145+ KPH with ease and bang it into the pitch, two vital ingredients to make a top middle-over enforcer, a role that continues to be in high demand in the T20 circuit to angle the ball into the body to cramp batters for room and mix it up with the yorker when needed to dry up scoring.
In the 2021 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season, Odean was the 3rd highest wicket-taker with 18 wickets to his name. And 11 of those wickets came in the middle overs alone, taking them at an average of 11.91 at an economy rate of 5.70. He was also the only bowler to take more than 10 wickets in this phase that year.
This is also complemented by his muscular and tall build that gives him strong and long levers which to a certain extent, makes his finisher role easy.
A prime example of this is his debut ODI series against Ireland in January last year, where on only his third delivery, Odean hit his first ODI six against Josh Little, which was an 84-meter six that dented the Range Rover of his teammate Sheldon Cottrell.
The following match, he nearly equalized Chris Gayle’s record of the fastest ODI 50 by a Windian batter off just 19 deliveries, smashing a 19-ball 46 striking at 242.10 that saw 5 sixes and 2 fours in the process, and he came into bat with the Windies struggling at 143-8 in 39.4 overs.
And on his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for the Punjab Kings last season, he won the Man of the Match Award for an 8-ball 25 chasing 206 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and helped Punjab successfully chase it down with an over to spare.
In other words, if Volcano Odean chose to do so, it does not have to remain dormant for as long as it has, for it has the ability to erupt with both bat and ball on a very consistent basis.
And for that consistency to materialize with the ball for example, I believe he must work with a bowling coach in the off-season to help him bowl accurately at the pace he bowls with far better control, and one example that comes to mind is none other than DJ Bravo.
Since transitioning to a player-cum-coach role and a bowling coach for the Chennai Super Kings, Bravo’s craft has already continued to live on through the bowlers he has worked with.
One such bowler is Naseem Shah, who played under his captaincy in the title-winning run of the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2021 CPL season. Under his wing, Naseem developed variations with a major pace differential that has seen his T20 game evolve further to an all-phase bowler, with the former being an area Odean has to work on.
Odean also worked closely with Julian Wood during his Punjab stint, who was their batting coach that season, as revealed in an Instagram post by Julian that enabled him to win the Man of the Match Award on his IPL debut.
So with the 2024 T20 World Cup now less than a year away, it becomes ever more pertinent that Odean gets his act together before it’s too late, for Romario Shepherd has continued to cement his name as first choice on the team sheet.
And while both of them have often played together, it can’t be the case every time.
Out of the 26 T20Is Odean has played, he’s played 17 of them with Romario, and though that’s well over half of his T20I career thus far, 5 of the T20Is he didn’t play with Romario were when they toured Australia for a series right before last year’s T20 World Cup and the tournament itself.
This serves as a strong indicator that the West Indies selectors are willing to drop one of them, and as of right now, in a tug-of-war, Romario has tugged Odean down.
And though Romario has shown improvement with both bat and ball in the past 12-18 months, there are still doubts looming over using him as the fifth bowler, a wide opening Odean can use to his full advantage in the upcoming CPL season.
But if he cannot, Romario may tug Odean down to a point where he isn’t even considered in the 15-man squad next year, for since it is a T20 World Cup primarily to be played in the Caribbean, you don’t necessarily need to stock up on several fast bowling options.
And for the purposes of the Mission Caribbean jigsaw puzzle, there remains the biggest reason why Odean must get it together: the fact that fast bowling all-rounders are constantly in high demand.
This is especially amplified in every IPL auction, and Odean himself has also tasted this from when Punjab bought him for 6 crores INR (approx. $750K USD), Romario for 7.75 crores INR (approx. $970K USD) in that same mega auction last year by Sunrisers Hyderabad and most recently, Sam Curran for 18.5 crore INR (approx. $2.3M USD) by Punjab to replace Odean after releasing him this year.
There’ll always be a constant demand for a reliable fast-bowling allrounder at #7 who can finish you games at least a few times a season and also be a dependable fifth bowling option in the T20 market, for its a commodity teams are frequently willing to shell out more money than they probably should on such a player they end up acquiring.
Often dubbed “X-Factor players,” it’s not just a thing in T20 leagues, it’s the same case in T20 internationals as well, especially when it's close to a T20 World Cup, for many believe that such players often prove to be the difference between lifting the trophy and “choking the final.”
Many fans will argue that your #7 must be the fast-bowling allrounder that ticks the aforementioned boxes, and the ones who perform in T20 leagues and bilateral when the time to pencil in a provisional squad is close stick out are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb, giving the selectors headaches that can’t be treated by a Tylenol pill.
Shepherd also comes under this category, but I believe it is not hard to argue that on paper Odean is the superior option in both departments, namely due to the pace he can bowl at and how his power hitting is far more effortless, with even half-hits capable of clearing the rope, making it all the more vital for him to fit the Mission Caribbean jigsaw puzzle.
And with Dre Russ continuing to make himself unavailable for international selection, it becomes ever so important for Odean to fulfill my vision of him as his fellow countryman’s successor, and also for the sake of West Indian cricket and Mission Caribbean, for its better late than never as they say.
However, even if such a version of Odean materializes, it must be highlighted that as obvious as it is, there’d still be off days, for even at his peak Russell had days where he’d crumble quickly just like the rest of the Kolkata Knight Riders batting lineup often did in seasons where he singlehandedly took them to the playoffs.
At the end of the day, no matter how good one is, the nature of the finisher role is very high variance and erratic, and given the pace Odean is capable of bowling, he’d also be prone to off days in that department as well in the form of inducing edges that fly away for boundaries which the bowling figures may not necessarily reflect, with fellow enforcer Umran Malik a big example.
But when the day arrives that Volcano Odean starts erupting constantly right in our face, we’d be mere inhabitants of Odean Smith’s world, for just like Russell, such X-Factor players from the Caribbean are different gravy.