Kemar Roach

Kemar Andre Jamal Roach (born 30 June 1988) is a Barbadian international cricketer who plays for the West Indies in Test and One Day Internationals.

As a 5 ft pacer, Roach initially reached speeds of over 90 mph on regular occasions.

After some time he adapted his bowling style, due to injuries and diminshed pace, to encourage augmented swing and movement of the ball.

He triumphantly claimed the BBL02 title with the Brisbane Heat and was an essential part of the Surrey side which eventually won the 2022 County Championship title.

On 7 June 2008, Roach was selected in the West Indies Test squad to face Australia in the third Test.

At the time he had played in only four first-class matches.

He was not picked for the final team and said "I know that when a Test match comes around, they sometimes draft in players in the island where the match is, but I wasn't expecting to be in the squad. I'm quite happy to be there. If selected, I want to put in a good performance".

Roach made his international debut on 20 June 2008 in a Twenty20 international against Australia; it was also the first senior Twenty20 match he had played in.

He finished with the best bowling figures in the match of 2/29 from three overs, claiming the scalps of Shaun Marsh and Luke Ronchi as the West Indies won by seven wickets.

Roach was drafted into the squad for the last two ODIs against Australia in July 2008 after Australia won the first three games and sealed a series victory.

Roach did not play in the last two matches of the series against Australia and had to wait until the triangular series with Bermuda and Canada to make his debut.

On 20 August 2008 Roach – along with fellow debutants Leon Johnson and Brendan Nash – made his first appearance for the West Indies in a One Day International.

He finished with figures of 10–1–29–2 as the West Indies beat Bermuda by six wickets.

His first wicket was that of Steven Outerbridge and his second was the Bermuda captain, Irving Romaine.

He played in the second match of the series, taking 1/49 from eight overs against Canada as the West Indies won by 49 runs but did not play in the final against Canada which the West Indies won.

On 1 November 2008, the ODI squad to tour Pakistan was announced, with Roach as one of the members.

John Dyson, the West Indies coach, said that Roach was expected to put the more experienced and established bowlers such as Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor under pressure for a place in the team.

On the same day, it was announced that Roach was one of four players – along with Lionel Baker, Leon Johnson, and Brendan Nash – without a Test cap to be named in the 15-man squad selected to tour New Zealand for a Test series.

Roach made his Test debut on 9 July 2009.

He was part of an understrength team fielded by the West Indies against Bangladesh; in the 15-man squad, there were nine uncapped players and in the Test seven West Indies players made their debut.

The side was captained by Floyd Reifer who had played the last of his four Tests ten years earlier.

The first XI had made themselves unavailable due to a pay dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.

His first Test wicket was that of all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

Although Bangladesh won by 95 runs, Roach helped put pressure on the Bangladesh batsmen through a combination of yorkers and swinging deliveries, although he bowled slightly wide to the left-handers.

Reifer praised Roach's efforts, saying "The first time I saw him as an under-19 bowler, I always thought he was going to play for West Indies. He does a lot, especially with the old ball, getting it to move in and out and he performed very well this morning, bowling decent lengths and lines".

Although Bangladesh won the second Test to take the series 2–0, Roach again bowled with pace and aggression, unsettling the Bangladesh batsmen.

Varying his length and exploiting the Bangladesh batsmen's weakness against short bowling – even hitting Raqibul Hasan on the elbow with one delivery – Roach proceeded to take career-best figures of 6/48 in the first innings.

With 13 wickets to his name, Roach finished as West Indies' leading wicket-taker from the series.

Although Bangladesh won the three-match ODI series that followed 3–0, Roach was leading wicket-taker for the series, with 10 wickets at an average of 16.20; in the first of the ODIs he took his maiden five-wicket haul in one day matches (5/44), beating his previous best figures of 2/29.

In the second ODI, Roach was fined 10% of his match fee for bowling two beamers.

The core of the same squad was retained for September's 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

Roach played in two of West Indies' three matches, as they exited the tournament in the first round, and took three wickets at 33.33.

Shortly before West Indies embarked on a tour of Australia in November to December 2009; senior players such as Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul returned to the squad, but Roach had sufficiently impressed selectors during the dispute that he retained his place.

The West Indies lost the first Test in three days; Adrian Barath's century on debut and Roach's bowling performance were the main positives for the West Indies; in the opinion of former Australia captain Ian Chappell, Roach's bowling was "exceptionally good" but he lacked support from more senior bowlers.

Although the West Indies drew the second Test, Roach (who was regularly bowling over 150 km/h) and Dwayne Bravo took the West Indies close to levelling the series on the final day of the match.

Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, commended Roach for his control and accuracy and said "Someone who is pretty short at that pace can get the ball to skid onto you pretty quickly off the wicket with not much bounce. We've played him pretty well here [in Adelaide]. The ball reverse-swung for them in both innings. He's a handful, there's no doubt about that. He's someone who could play a fair bit of Test cricket for them in the future."

Roach made history for the West Indies as he was the first West Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in a Cricket World Cup, which he did against the Netherlands during the 2011 tournament.

During 2012 he became the first West Indies bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test since 2005.

Roach has since picked up over 250 wickets in Tests and over 100 ODI wickets for the Windies.

He has also featured for Barbados, Deccan Chargers, Worcestershire along with CPL teams Antigua Hawksbills, St Lucia Zouks and Jamaica Tallawahs in his cricketing career.