Windies Test Squad to tour Australia

Coach: David Williams
Manager: Joel Garner (uhoh, WICB enforcer who does not get on well with most of the players).

Chris Gayle (Captain), Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Brendan Nash, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor, Gavin Tonge.

N.B: Fidel Edwards is injured apparently. All in all it seems like a sensible squad. Travis Dowlin is clearly a loyalty pick whilst Benn certainly is not the best spinner in the Caribbean. Other than that I can accept it as one of the better full strength squads the selectors have chosen in recent years.

Coach: David Williams
Manager: Joel Garner

Is that the 5 foot tall David Williams?

Yeah it's Lil Willy the former West Indies wicket keeper. Really is a little and large management team.

A bowling attack of,

Taylor
Roach
Bravo (Dwayne)
Benn
Tonge/Rampaul/Sammy?


Sammy would be good to bolster the batting and I suppose his fielding is half-decent. However, they have Bravo as the main allrounder, which means Rampaul is probably more deserving of the 4th seamer spot because of his experience...

I personally would not bother with Benn at Brisbane. I am fed up of the guy, he is carp and Deonarine and Gayle can bowl his overs.

The side will hopefully be:

Gayle
Barath
Sarwan
Deonarine
Shiv
Nash
Bravo
Ramdin
Taylor
Rampaul
Roach

Benn at Brisbane will be about as effective as Ashley Giles in Brisbane in 2006.

Exactly . Might as well go with a pace based attack on the one surface that will really help the quicks.

Fiddy will be dearly missed. Especially as he's come so far since 2005.

Yeah its a real shame. Was really looking forward to the Edwards/Taylor/Roach combo as it would have meant no respite for the Aussies.

Ah well Rampaul is a talented bowler and hopefully he will do himself justice.

Be wary of Ponting backlash. He'll be seeking runs, and on a Brisbane pitch, I feel he'll capitalise as he so often does.

DJ_Smerk wrote:Be wary of Ponting backlash. He'll be seeking runs, and on a Brisbane pitch, I feel he'll capitalise as he so often does.

You are forgetting that we have Taylor in our team. Ponting is his bunny, he's got him out 9 times in 11 innings in all forms of the game, usually lbw or bowled.

One can hope so WIFAN! However, Brisbane is usually a very tricky pitch for all travelling bowlers to bowl on.


In recent times, only India have really had much effect on Gabba deck.

We can only hope that Taylor and co bowl a fullish length and don't fall into the trap of bowling too short because it has more pace than they are used to.

Bowl short on the Gabba and expect to be chasing 500+ in your first innings.



Still, it's gonna be tough whatever the weather.

DJ_Smerk wrote:Bowl short on the Gabba and expect to be chasing 500+ in your first innings.



Still, it's gonna be tough whatever the weather.

They may serve up a deck like they had last year against NZ.

I doubt it though - will want give Australia a chance of lasting through to the 5th day.

It's lucky Pakistan aren't getting a test in the Gabba. A fit and firing Umar Gul/Asif combination would have run riot, given the chance.

Similar to RP and Zak a few years ago.


WI will turn to Roach and Taylor in this junction (as WIFAN stated).



Ignore that, I'm going mental.

Sometimes the best pace attacks don't get to bowl in Brissie though the NZ seamers wreaked havoc in the first innings last year after Punter decided to bat first on a greentop.

This is the last chance for Chanderpaul to cement his spot amongst the small g, greats.

A chance for sarwan to go from average to good.

A chance for Gayle to go from 60-100.

Most of all it's a chance for the next great West Indian batsman to make his long overdue test debut. How refreshing it will be to have a proper orthodox opening batsman for the first time in years.