WI name unchanged Squad for third Test

Jun 23, 2014 Sports

Skipper wants more ‘hunger’ to close off matches

By Sean Devers
The West Indies Cricket Board’s Selection Panel has named an unchanged 14-man squad for the third and deciding Test Match against New Zealand, scheduled to start on Thursday at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
West Indies head into the third, originally fixed for Guyana but moved because of contentious Guyana Cricket Administration Bill, on a high following an emphatic 10-wicket win with over a session to spare in Trinidad after their first Test defeat in Jamaica.
Captain Denish Ramdin said that his players were lackadaisical and lacked hunger amid stiff resistance by the ninth-wicket pair of Bradley Watling and Mark Craig in New Zealand’s second innings in the Trinidad Test. Kemar Roach finally broke the partnership at the stroke of lunch on the final day, before Chris Gayle launched a merciless assault on the bowlers to spur the West Indies to a ten-wicket win, their first following five losses and one draw.
The squad includes Darren Bravo, who scored his first century at home and Kraigg Braithwaite, who notched up a maiden ton on his way to the Man-of-the-Match Award last week in Trinidad.
Also in the squad is Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood, who registered a debut half-century and Kirk Edwards who also scored a fifty in Port-of-Spain.
Gayle followed up his first Test half-century with a brutal unbeaten 46-ball 80 and seemed to have returned to top form ahead of Thursday’s decider at the ‘Mecca’ with a destructive 50 from just 28 balls, the sixth fastest 50 in Test history and second fastest among West Indians behind Shane Shillingford.
With 96 sixes to his name, Gayle has moved within closing distance to break the all-time record for the most number of sixes in Test cricket held by former Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist with 100 sixes.
The pugnacious Jamaican also became the third West Indies player to score 7,000 runs in international cricket at home, after Brian Lara (9441) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (8859). Chanderpaul’s 47 put him eight on the list of most Test runs taking him to 11,374 runs, including a record 46 not outs, and the senior statesman in the side will be relied on to glue the middle order together. Only Brian Lara has more runs among West Indies than the Guyanese.
The Bowling will again revolve around pacer Jermaine Taylor and left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn, while Shillingford could return to the final X1 after injury kept him out in Trinidad.
West Indies Squad: Denish Ramdin (Captain), Suleiman Benn, Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Braithwaite, Darren Bravo, Shiv Chanderpaul, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Leon Johnson, Shane Shillingford, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor
Support staff: Ottis Gibson (Head Coach), Sir Richard Richardson (Team Manager), Sir Curtly Ambrose (Bowling Consultant), Stuart Williams (Assistant Coach), Andre Coley (Assistant Coach), C.J. Clark (Physiotherapist), Hector Martinez Charles (Strength & Conditioning), Richard Berridge (Video & Statistical Analyst), Philip Spooner (Media Manager) & Virgil Browne (Massage Therapist)

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WI name unchanged Squad for third Test

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WI name unchanged Squad for third Test

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