Eighteen-year-old Antiguan and Leeward Islands cricketer Jewel Andrew is currently the best batter in the Caribbean.
This is the opinion of West Indies fast bowler and fellow Antiguan, Alzarri Joseph, who gave his assessment of the young batting prodigy while speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show earlier this week and urged those in authority to do all in their power to further nurture his talent.
โIn my opinion, I think he is the best batter in the Caribbean at the moment. I donโt think there are much people that have the ability to bat like he does,โ he said. โHe just scores so freely, he never looks in trouble and I enjoy bowling to him in the nets because I get to rile him up a bit because he finds it very difficult to score against me but he gets it off with the other bowlers.
โFor me, I think heโs pretty much the best batter we have in the Caribbean, so itโs about nurturing that talent and not allowing it to go down the drain or allowing time to go past and he donโt really fulfill his potential.โ
Andrew, last week, registered his maiden first-class century โ 122 off 139 balls against Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in the West Indies Championship here at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. His knock included 12 boundaries and three towering sixes.
The batter, who represented the West Indies U19 at ICC Menโs Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2023, also made his CPL debut for the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons last year.
Joseph went on to critique his own performance with the bat, admitting there is room for improvement.
โTo be honest, I donโt think Iโve lived up to my batting potential but thatโs something I am working on. I havenโt really had much time to do as much as I wanted to on my batting because Iโve been playing so much. Iโve been prioritising a bit more rest in terms of staying off my feet. I go to training and I do my bowling; I do a bit of batting and I could spend a bit more time, but Iโd rather use that time to just rest and recover,โ he said.
Joseph has scored a total of 701 runs in 37 Tests with a highest of 86 while he has scored 426 runs in 75 ODI matches. In 38 T20 Internationals, the Antiguan has scored 121 runs while he has amassed 1420 First Class runs in 74 matches with a highest score of 89.
