No cricketer has captured the international imagination in the past five years of West Indies cricket the way that Shamar Joseph did on that iconic evening at the Gabba last January.
The story was almost too fairytale even to break through the cynicism which now follows the West Indies around the world. But, bowling on a broken toe, with no first-class cricket behind him, Joseph created his own reality – enough to mask the weariness and the doomsters, if only for a fleeting moment.
The aftermath brought reality back with it. As franchise deals came in for the new wonderkid, and the familiar discourse crept back in, the details of that Brisbane evening slipped further from memory. Part of that was the main protagonist was no longer in action. Between January and the tour of England, Joseph played four professional matches. The ILT20 contract handed out after Australia, was quickly ripped up to give his toe time to heal. As was the PSL contract. When he did make his return to the global stage in the IPL in March, those following his journey were brought back down to earth with a bump.
Read more: Shamar Joseph's five-for rattles through South Africa
His first over went for 22 after he had to bowl the final ball five times to send down a legal delivery. He consistently missed his lines for the rest of his spell and was pulverised by Sunil Narine and Phil Salt, finishing with figures of 0-47. He didn't play another game in the tournament. This was Joesph's 12th senior match and third T20 ever, an important caveat. But for those watching, it was the first chink in the mythology created around a 24-year-old.
After the T20 World Cup, in which Joseph made his T20I debut, England offered the promise of an evermore to the folklore. A hungry West Indies attack, bolstered by both Joseph and Jayden Seales was pinned as the only hope for to make up for an undercooked and under-experienced batting lineup. But while Seales shone, Shamar struggled. The two fours he was crunched for in his opening over at Lord's set the tone. Lacking in control and with only hints of the magic he had in Australia, he finished the series as the West Indies most expensive bowler. He also looked short of fitness, particularly at Lord's coming into the series off the back of so little cricket.
Shamar Joseph rips through South Africa on home turf
With Seales' success in England, it was little surprise when Kemar Roach came back into the XI for the first Test against South Africa that Joseph was the one to miss out. No one's career is a linear journey, and Joseph's has been accelerated through peaks and troughs which normally take years, but have been condensed into a few months through fleeting glimpses we've had of him. These fixes have been so sporadic that each of them feels to have more weight for a player who's had the future of the West Indies pinned on his shoulder since his second international match.
But, at his home ground in Providence, that high craved from each of those infrequent fixes over the last six months finally hit. Back in the XI for the winner takes all Test, his first ball sent Aiden Markram hopping, just about getting an inside edge into his pad before staring down the point in the pitch off which he ball had jagged back in so viciously. He tempted Tristan Stubbs into driving in his next over, almost getting a hand to a ball punched back down the pitch before, in his next over, he unleashed.
First Markram, castled, deceived by the angle and the length. Two balls later, Temba Bavuma was struck by a ball that kept low in front of the stumps. He didn't bother with the review. After several overs of muted appeals, balls which just dropped short of the slip corden, the wobble-seam again did the job, sending David Bedingham on his way. Keshav Maharaj was castled in the next over before finally, Kyle Veryenne's stumps were shattered to complete Joseph's second chapter.
Running through the outfield towards his thin home crowd, it wasn't quite the Gabba, but it was Joseph's third five-wicket-haul in his sixth Test. He looked towards the sky as he knelt on the turf, savouring yet another magic moment in his story.
The in betweens will surely once again become the story. How much more frequent could these moments become if the period in between them was better managed? If there was more opportunity for his story to be sustained with consistent Test cricket how many wickets could he end up with? But once again, for a brief moment Joseph has eclipsed those noises, if only for the length of time he was knelt on the outfield in Providence.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
