**Official** West Indies in England 2012

[roseboy64]

Biggest hopes for anything in the Tests are Bravo, Chanderpaul and the bowlers. No clue if any of the other batsmen have played cricket in England at all i.e club sides.

Sarwan and Nash do have that experience of course but they won't be selected.

 

[biased indian]

hope the next couple england of series help me to get rid of this ****ing avatar

 

[CWB304]

Some on here might be underestimating WI just a little. I like their bowling attack particularly if Rampaul plays ahead of the ineffective Edwards. The batting whilst still fragile might just be on the cusp of becoming pretty solid once more. The only glaring weakness for me is in the wicketkeeper position - and the fact that there seems to be nowhere you can place Sammy where he won't drop ridiculously simple catches.

Agree with CIML that Chanderpaul should remain at 5. It's tactical. He's so far and away their best batsman that he needs to be shielded from the new ball, or they'd be in danger of being skittled out for less than 150 every third innings. Edwards (K) and Bravo are at that tantalising stage where they are just one signature series away from making the transition from being promising prospects to established world class Test batsmen. If either, or better yet, both are able to take significant steps in this direction this summer and average say 40+ for the series, then WI should be competitive.

On the debit side Bell looks in better nick and that's an ominous sign for any visiting team.

 

[GIMH]

Nearly fell off my chair

 

[Prince EWS]

awesome

 

[Eds]

 

[Cevno]

Haha! Classic.

 

[Jacknife]

Seems the WI have a few more problems to think about:

West Indies in England 2012: West Indies depleted by visa problems | Cricket News | England v West Indies | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Jacknife]

Bell's replaced Stokes in the Lions squad, sounds like he asked for the place in the Lions for the extra time in the middle. I read before that he'd spoken to the ECB to get a extra County game under his belt and had planned on having extended net session at Edgbaston. Good to see he's working on his game and knows what he needs to do to be ready for the test series. Stokes is still having trouble with his back and has had to sit this one out while he has it managed.

West Indies in England 2012: Ian Bell replaces Ben Stokes in Lions squad | Cricket News | England v West Indies | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Tour manager, Richie Richardson as 12th man? Surely another joke by WICB!!!

 

[vic_orthdox]

As long as wears his maroon floppy, I don't mind.

 

[Spikey]

and pictures, we need pictures

 

[uvelocity]

I want to see him bat

 

[Dan]

Tour manager, Richie Richardson as 12th man? Surely another joke by WICB!!!

Not much you can do when you've only got 11 players in the country because of the visa issues, and the only other West Indian cricketer around can't play for you without giving up his county spot.

Richie Richardson would still probably make more runs than Braithwaite would have

 

[theegyptian]

Ottis Gibson himself was supreme in his last couple of years in county cricket and no doubt would put up a good bowling show in these conditions if called into action fitness permitting - and possibly outshine some of the other West Indian bowlers.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Sarwan?

 

[Dan]

Sarwan?

Very true - Sarwan and Brendan Nash are both floating around.

 

[smash84]

WI to blackwash
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themselves

 

[TT Boy]

Well Windies managed to get 11 on the park against Sussex, just that 5 are bowlers and Ramdin needs to bat 6. Prior is playing for Sussex as is Monty.

 

[Stapel]

There's only one word that comes to mind here, and that's BLASPHEME!! , there's no question whatsoever that if Narine wasn't at the IPL he would have played against the Aussies and would be in the team to face England, why? because he's by far best spinner we've produced since Lance Gibbs, that's why!! ,

Anyway folks let me give you the low down on Shannon Gabriel, ever since he made his debut for Trinidad around two years ago there's been a lot of hype around the lad, so much so that the WI selectors went to watch him play in only his second FC match, now in his first few games he only got a few wickets but his pace and control was causing all sorts of problems, and the more he played the more impressive he was,

As a result of his early promise he was picked for the A-team alongside the likes of Darren Bravo, Shillingford and Kirk Edwards and done ok, after that he had a spell with the HPC aka the 'High Performance Centre' where he had the opportunity to work one on one with Ottis Gibson, reports emerged that Gibbo was impressed but wanted him to have more FC experience, so this season he played again for Trinidad and really done well, took 24 wickets at an average of 25,

No doubt he's still a little rough around the edges but if he does develop the right way then many feel he could be a very dangerous prospect, he stands at 6'3 tall and is built like Philander, his pace is similar to Roach if not faster, HERE is a glimpse of him in action for HPC late last year when he gets a wicket around the 2:05 mark,

As for the rest of he team, delighted Baugh has been dropped and i think Ramdin has really improved with the bat of late so hopefully he grabs this second chance with both hands, pity about young Brathwaite but he's only 19 so he'll learn from this experience and hopefully come back stronger, Kirk Edwards is obviously gonna make a huge difference after we missed him for the last two test vs Aus, and i'm eager to see how Fudadin gets on in the warm up matches as i still think that number six spot is up for grabs,

Going with the squad picked i'd still keep faith with the young openers and pick this side.

Powell
Barath
Edwards
Darren Bravo
Chanderpaul
Samuels/Fudadin
Ramdin
Sammy (no choice)
Roach
Gabriel/Rampaul (depends if Ravi manages to get in shape)
Shillingford

We'll be up against it that's for sure, but if the lads show some fight who knows what could happen? we've shocked England before so anything is possible i think , the tests might be out of our reach but the ODI's is a series i truly believe we can win it to be honest.

Powell out and move them all up to put Deonarine in?