West Indies v India, 2nd Test, Barbados, 28 June-2 July 2011

Nash out, Captain Kirk Edwards in.

Only one Edwards will play.

Simmons
Barath
Sarwan
Chanderpaul
Bravo
Baugh
Sammy
Rampaul
Roach
Bishoo
Edwards

India will unlikely make any changes. Consistency and furthering the experience of the fringe players will be their top priority.

Maybe Munaf for Mishra, depending on the pitch.

Aye, the way WI are batting he probably won't be called in for more than 10 overs an innings. Even he should be fine for that. If WI have pretensions of building an innings, abort mission, fragile gentleman coming through...

So the "let's give the whitey a try" experiment is over for the Ganjas. Back to the Gabba nets for him, perhaps?

DJ_Smerk wrote:Nash out, Captain Kirk Edwards in.

Only one Edwards will play.

Simmons
Barath
Sarwan
Chanderpaul
Bravo
Baugh
Sammy
Rampaul
Roach
Bishoo
Edwards

India will unlikely make any changes. Consistency and furthering the experience of the fringe players will be their top priority.

They surely can't go with that line-up. The tail starts at 6 (and the openers aren't all that flash and 3 and 4 are both possibly past it). West Indies desperately need to find a wicketkeeper/batsman, bearing in mind the batsmen aren't very good and most of their bowlers are rank tailenders. Would at least help with their depth.

But Windies domestic cricket seems to be mirroring the 1920s with lots of keepers who average in the teens. Maybe they should train Simmons up?

It's tricky as there isn't a whole host of players to turn to.

With Nash axed, Gayle and Dwayne Bravo (whom is not consistent enough with the bat) out of the picture, it's a selectors nightmare. Kirk Edwards is far from the answer to this conundrum, and I think Roach should play in Bridgetown.

The WICB must bite the bullet and start rethinking how Sammy fits into the side. He's like Flintoff in the England squad a few years back, he disrupts the balance of the side. In essence Sammy is keeping out stronger bowlers. Whether he's keeping out stronger batsmen is a moot point at the moment.

Seamer alternatives through dropping Sammy:

Kemar Roach
Andre Russell
Jerome Taylor
Kieron Pollard
Gavin Tonge
Neon Pascal
Lionel Baker

Batting alternatives through dropping Sammy:

Chris Gayle
Devon Smith
Xavier Marshall
Dwayne Smith
Ryan Hinds


Ideally,

Gayle
Barath
Sarwan
Chanderpaul*
Simmons+
Darren Bravo
Dwayne Bravo
Rampaul
Roach
Edwards
Bishoo


On paper, that is their strongest side.

DJ_Smerk wrote:Nash out, Captain Kirk Edwards in.

Only one Edwards will play.

Simmons
Barath
Sarwan
Chanderpaul
Bravo
Baugh
Sammy
Rampaul
Roach
Bishoo
Edwards

India will unlikely make any changes. Consistency and furthering the experience of the fringe players will be their top priority.

One of Roach, Rampaul or Edwads will sit for Samuels I think. Baugh is not a number 6 and Sammy isn't a 7. So they're gonna need a batsman. I feel they probably dropped Nash too soon. I would have given him at least to the end of this series. He has been pretty consistent since he started playing for us. He has earned the chance of a bad test or 2. Especially if Kirk Edwards is the replacement. He's useless.

Barath
Simmons
Sarwan
Darren Bravo
Chanderpaul
Samuels
Baugh+
Sammy(c)
Rampaul
Edwards
Bishoo

Ramnaresh Sarwan must be on thin ice. Chanders as well, I would have thought. Neither have done much with the bat for the last six months.

Aye, Ronnie has been having a shocker.

DJ_Smerk wrote:
The WICB must bite the bullet and start rethinking how Sammy fits into the side. He's like Flintoff in the England squad a few years back, he disrupts the balance of the side. In essence Sammy is keeping out stronger bowlers. Whether he's keeping out stronger batsmen is a moot point at the moment.

He's worse than Flintoff as he cannot bat and he cannot bowl. Unless he's a better captain than Mike Brearley I really don't see the point in him - the whole selection is just to spite Gayle. A 0-Dimensional cricketer.

What's up with Sarwan - he should be in the prime of his career right now? Instead he's worse than when he was 19.

Can anyone explain why Jerome Taylor is not getting a look-in? I wish they would damn the consequences and take 3 strike bowlers in - Taylor, Roach, Edwards - don't die wondering with these sh!tty medium paced trundlers like Sammy and Rampaul.

Rampaul was their best pacer in the last series and the last match though. I'd pick him instead of Roach. But yeah, Sammy really needs to go, the WI even as weak as they are now, have better options, much better.

Gayle
Barath
Sarwan
Bravo
Chanderpaul
Simmons+
Bravo
Russell
Bishoo
Edwards
Taylor

This team is batting heavy, good allrounders till no.8 and then decent tailenders in 9-11. Will make them harder to beat IMO while giving them 5 bowling options. They could also swap in one of Roach/Rampaul in place of Russell/Bravo if they want a better bowling unit. But this would need Simmons to keep, Baugh and Ramdin both are a bit mediocre.

sammy is averaging less than 20 in tests this year. why would you want to drop him? roach took 4 wickets in 2 tests vs pak

Sammy is simply not a Test match bowler - he seems quite adept at cleaning up the tail - but on a decent wicket with only Bishoo and Edwards appraoching test class they simply won't get to the tail again this series.

If I had to pick 3 pacers, I would pick Edwards, Taylor and Rampaul, in that order. Roach has pace, but I don't see much else. Sammy doesn't even have that. Just not good enough.

Early prediction - Vijay and Samuels to score hundreds.

Rampaul this year: 15 wickets @ 22. Top order wickets. He should be the first bowler on the list. He's bowling at a decentish lick a lot of the time too.

He got lots of wickets in those 3 Tests, I just don't see him as a Test bowler though. Not that quick - from what I saw of the last Test he seemed to benefit from some silly batting and a shooter. Its just Woakes / Kabir Ali style kiss the pitch at no great pace stuff.

JimmyA pace plus. Who shows you don't have to be express if you're moving the ball. Which he does.

Gary 111 wrote:He got lots of wickets in those 3 Tests, I just don't see him as a Test bowler though. Not that quick - from what I saw of the last Test he seemed to benefit from some silly batting and a shooter. Its just Woakes / Kabir Ali style kiss the pitch at no great pace stuff.

Rampaul is not lightning fast but he isn't slow either. Has done a good job getting early breakthroughs. He just has to keep working on his fitness. TOny Cozier wrote a good article on him

http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-india-2011/content/current/story/520884.html

Yeah good article, KKF.

He deserves his place as the frontline bowler. He'd be the first player on my teamsheet for the foreseeable future.

Barath would be first on my teamsheet. Followed by Baugh.

Munaf's out, so Mithun will probably get a game if the pitch assists pacers.

Mukund already out.

Well, live cricket eh? Better than that England sh!t....

I see Ravindranath "not good enough for Test cricket" Rampaul has snared Mukund. What a dobber.

Rampaul is class.

He's got this opener in all sorts of bother.