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Shimron Odilon Hetmyer warmed the West Indies bench throughout the recent T20 World Cup staged in the West Indies and the USA, unable to land a place in a team that clearly was not playing its best cricket.
Yet, mere months later, in the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL), he blasted 14 consecutive sixes against the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots before he contented himself with a four.
Photo: Randy Brooks/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
The almost-28-year-old left-hander, whose strokeplay is as colourful as his hairstyle, is one of a group of very talented young West Indian players to hit the international stage in recent times.
Born 26 December 1996, he started his cricketing career at the Young Warriors Cricket Club in Berbice but first came to regional prominence after he led the West Indies Under-19s to victory in the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.
His international career began in 2017 when he made his Test debut against Pakistan. Later that same year, in December, came his first ODI selection against New Zealand, followed quickly, early in the following year 2018, by selection for the regional team’s T20 assignment against the Kiwis.
Hetmyer’s obvious talent and abilities are not reflected in his averages across all formats in the international arena.
Photo: Daniel Prentice/ Wired868
Despite the now seven years since his entry into the international Test arena, his record there shows a modest 16 matches and 30 innings, an unflattering aggregate of 838 runs, a completely unacceptable 27.93 average and not a single three-figure score!
His highest Test score of 93 came against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2018.
He has fared rather better with the white ball. In ODIs, he has scored just over 1,500 runs in 53 appearances and 50 innings.
He averages 32.23 and has a highest score of 139—one of five three-figure scores in this format. That sparkling century was made vs India in Chennai in 2019.
Photo: Daniel Prentice/ Wired868
If you were fortunate enough to be a witness to the 91 he made off 39 balls against STKNP in Match 7 this year, your surprise is understandable. It’s truly hard to believe that, in 49 innings and 58 T20I matches, Hettie’s average is a very modest 21.2 and his top score an unbeaten 81, compiled against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
Notice anything? 2018, 2019, 2021? We are, in case you need reminding, in 2024.
In his last 25 innings for the West Indies across formats going back to October 2021 in England, the aggressive lefthander has crossed 50 only three times.
There’s the November 2021 unbeaten 81 against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi, the 56 against India in Lauderhill in August 2022 and the 61 against the same opposition at the same venue a year later.
Photo: Daniel Prentice/ Wired868
Notably, there are no fewer than 11 single-digit scores in those 25 innings. And not a single one of those 25 innings was played in a Test match. Hetmyer’s last Test appearance for the West Indies was in November 2019 when he made 13 in his only innings against Afghanistan.
In that same year, the Royal Challengers Bangalore selected Hetmyer in the IPL draft. A hot property on the lucrative international franchise market, he has since represented a total of no fewer than nine franchises around the world.
Granted a red-ball contract by Cricket West Indies in the 2018/2019 season, the one-time Guyana Amazon Warriors captain has had more than one run-in with the West Indies selectors.
Selected to represent the West Indies in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, he was eventually dropped from the squad.
The reason? He missed the flight arranged for him by the Board and then apparently changed his mind about taking the one he had subsequently arranged for himself.
He also once made himself unavailable for a West Indies assignment, opting instead to represent his IPL franchise.
Photo: Randy Brooks/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
Thankfully, however, the relationship appears to have been repaired. Hetmyer found his way back in the West Indies T20 squad for the three-match series against South Africa in Jamaica earlier this year.
The reunion has arguably had a very positive effect on the talented middle-order batsman who, by the way, is also a brilliant fieldsman—particularly when patrolling the mid-wicket and cover boundaries.
He has made 353 runs in the ten games of the league phase of this year’s CPL, making him GAW’s leading run-scorer so far. Three of his last five innings in the tournament have yielded scores in excess of 50: 63, 57 and 58.
Photo: Randy Brooks/CPL T20 via Getty Images
He arguably devastated and demoralised the Patriots with his whirlwind 91—with 11 sixes and no fours!—in Warner Park. And then blasted three more sixes in the return game in Providence before he settled for the first of his four fours.
That is the form GAW skipper Imran Tahir and the throngs of enthusiastic, never-say-die, gold-green-and-red-clad, chicken curry supporters who will be in Providence on Sunday evening will be hoping for.
In partnership with Shai Hope, who captained the team while Tahir was out injured, Hettie has shouldered the responsibility for posting winning totals or chasing down challenging ones.
Photo: Randy Brooks/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
He is only one of a handful of match-winners in the middle order whose contribution cannot really be computed in numbers. He has the power to rip the heart out of the opposition bowling attack.
In the Eliminator on Tuesday evening, everyone saw how loss of power can negatively affect the proceedings.
Hetmyer knows only too well that he must bring down the power on Sunday. And turn it on.
Photo: Randy Brooks/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
GAW’s successful navigation of the treacherous path to the defence of the CPL title could depend on it.
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Warren Thompson is a Tobagonian by birth, a life-long student of cricket by preference and an economist by profession. His formal training came at QRC, The UWI and the University of Wales but the assets/skills of which this father of three girls is proudest come from the School of Hard Knocks.
