Gayle, Taylor ignored for first Test, Chanderpaul to meet team management

Jun 18, 2011 Sports

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West Indies have one of their best chances of winning a Test series against an Indian side missing several key players even as the Jamaican pair of Chris Gayle and Jerome Taylor were ignored for the first Test which starts on Monday in Jamaica.
An unproductive meeting between Gayle, his WIPA representatives and the WICB meant that the left-hander was unlikely to have gained selection after returning from a highly successful IPL tournament in India and his future in West Indies colours is now in jeopardy.
Taylor who also participated in the last IPL would have been a good option on his home pitch which should offer some early bounce but the same attack which played on the slow tracks in Guyana and St Kitts in the Pakistan Test series have been retained.
Skipper Darren Sammy said after the consolation ODI win at Sabina Park on Thursday that the Jamaica track should be more helpful to the fast bowlers than the ones against Pakistan and India so far but once again only three pacers and Sammy have been selected.
Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach and Fidel Edwards, yet to feature in a game since his re-call to the squad, are the pacers selected while Sammy could do the job of stock bowler with leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo the only specialist spinner selected.
India has won just two Test series in the West Indies (1971 & 2006) and while their batsmen are generally uncomfortable against hostile fast bowling it is unlikely (due to the balance of the side) that all three pacers along with Sammy will play on Monday.
Although he struggled in his come-back match on Thursday, 21-year-old Adrian Barath replaces 17-year-old Kraigg Braithwaite in the only change from the squad which lost to Pakistan in St Kitts.
Experienced left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who pulled out of the St Kitts Test due to a shoulder injury, has five centuries against India and is a key member of the middle order. But there is still some uncertainty regarding his place in the starting eleven.
The veteran of 130 Test since 1994 averages 49.06 and has 22 centuries at this level and since the retirement of Brian Lara has been the glue that held the middle order together as the most senior player in the side.
However, a fall-out between Chanderpaul and Coach Otis Gibson resulted in Chanderpaul speaking publicly about the problems the senior players faced during the World Cup.
Chanderpaul, only behind Lara with Test runs among West Indians, is back but it seems there are still unresolved issues between the Guyanese and the West Indies Management team which includes Richie Richardson, Gibson and Sammy.
“Following communications between WICB Management and Chanderpaul over the past weeks the WICB Management and Team Management will meet with Shivnarine Chanderpaul prior to the Test.
The WICB Management and Team Management will outline to Chanderpaul the WICB’s expectations of him in his future participation in the West Indies team as a player,” the WICB said yesterday when the squad was released.
Apart from Chanderpaul, Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan, the leading West Indian batsman in the five-match ODI series against India, Jamaican Marlon Samuels and Barbadian Edwards are the only other players in the side with 30 or more Tests.
Australian born Vice-Captain Brendon Nash returns after missing the ODI series and should add to his 20 Tests since his debut in 2008.
The dashing 22-year-old Darren Bravo who has four fifties in five Tests and fellow Trinidadian Lendl Simmons, who batted well in the ODIs against Pakistan, are also in the squad as is Wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh.
The West Indies squad:- Darren Sammy (Captain), Brendan Nash (Vice Captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons.   (Sean Devers)

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