Alick Athanaze

Alick Athanaze has a lot to live up to. The great Brian Lara has called him "the most talented" of West Indies' current batters. Ian Bishop, never one for hyperbole, suggested Athanaze could be "a leading light in years to come" - this after he had played just one Test innings, and scored 47 against India on his home ground in Dominica.
Watch Athanaze's elegant, left-handed presence at the crease and his crisp strokeplay, however, and you begin to see why he's already being spoken of in these terms. While the truly big scores are yet to come, and has already shown plenty of spark in international cricket: he announced himself with a 45-ball 65 on ODI debut against UAE, and then, in his sixth Test, made a stroke-filled 82 during a partnership of 175 with Kavem Hodge against England at Trent Bridge.
Athanaze has been forged by difficult times, most notably when Hurricane Maria had battered Dominica in 2017, when he was about to leave for a Windward Islands training camp in St Lucia. A part of his roof fell down and one wall of his bedroom cracked, and all communication out of Dominca was cut off.
"The hurricane gave me the confidence to face any challenge in life," he told ESPNcricinfo. "That was the good thing it did."
The new-found confidence quickly found its way onto the cricket field. Athanaze went on to top the run-scoring charts at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, scoring 418 runs at an average of 104.50 and relegating Shubman Gill to second place.
By March 2024, West Indies had capped Athanaze in all three formats, and he carries a burden disproportionate to his experience, particularly in a Test line-up full of young hopefuls. As Lara put it before the tour of England in 2024, West Indies need him to "jump a couple of steps very quickly" and help kickstart their revival in the longest format. Great expectations, but he certainly has the potential to fulfill them.