When the West Indies contingent landed in Bangladesh for a 3-match ODI series and a 2-match test series this year, they were without many of their first-choice players. The list included test captain Jason Holder, test vice-captain Roston Chase and limited-overs captain Kieron Pollard, who were among 10 players to have pulled out of the tour of Bangladesh due to the fear of Covid-19.
To add to that, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, Sheldon Cottrell, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran were also not part of the squad while all-rounder Fabian Allen and wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich were unavailable due of personal reasons.
This left West Indies thin on resources and even made the team almost unrecognisable for even some of the ardent cricket fans. To be fair, there was only one player in the West Indies playing XI throughout their three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, who would have been part of the team's first-choice XI - pacer Alzarri Joseph.
As a result, the team had to hand ODI debuts to a host of players in the first ODI itself, namely, Akeal Hosein, Andre McCarthy, Chemar Holder, Hasan Mahmud, Joshua Da Silva, Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner. It was not a surprise then that the West Indies batting bundled out cheaply in all the three matches and surrendered meekly in the series without showing a lot of fight.
The last time West Indies had to hand more ODI caps than this was when the team played their first ever ODI against England at Leeds in 1973.
In that match, all 11 of West Indies players - Alvin Kallicharran, Bernard Julien, Clive Lloyd, Deryck Murray, Garry Sobers, Keith Boyce, Lance Gibbs, Maurice Foster, Rohan Kanhai, Roy Fredericks and Vanburn Holder - made their debuts.
In the ODI played at Headingley in Leeds, Rohan Kanhai 55 (75) and Clive Lloyd 31 (32) were the top scores for West Indies while Vanburn Holder 2/34(11) and Keith Boyce 2/40(11) were their best bowlers.
For England, Derek Underwood 3/30(11) and Chris Old 3/43(11) did well with the ball while Mike Denness 66 (117) and Tony Greig 48 (54) were the stars with the bat.
In reply to West Indies' 181/10(54 overs), England reached 182/9(54.3 overs) to win the close match by one wicket, with just 3 balls remaining.
West Indies had to also field 6 debutants against Australia at Castries, St Lucia in 1978 and 5 against Australia at St John’s, Antigua in 1978.
