Who is Joshua Da Silva and is he a future West Indies opener?
Joshua Da Silva caught the eye of many onlookers when scoring an unbeaten 133 in West Indies’ final intra-squad warm-up game at Old Trafford. But what’s his story, and could he make a debut this series?
In the run-up to the Caribbean red-ball campaign, Joshua Da Silva was a central figure for the West Indies Emerging team as they won the limited-overs Super50 Cup. The keeper-batsman made 103* against the Windward Islands, having blasted 62* from 44 balls against the USA, during the tournament’s group phase. He then went on to top score for his side in a low-scoring semi-final victory against Barbados.
The 22-year-old followed up his white-ball success with an unbeaten 113 against Jamaica in the opening game of the West Indies Championship (the domestic four-day competition), before making 80 a week later. A second innings 79* from 168 deliveries against the Leeward Islands demonstrated that Da Silva has plenty of defensive stoicism to complement the attacking fluidity he displayed in the Super50; coming in with his side 19-3 and leading by only 55, Da Silva marshalled Trinidad to a total they just about managed to defend. Without his contribution they almost certainly wouldn’t have.