Windies stick with squad that crumbled to India
MUMBAI, India (CMC) — West Indies yesterday announced a 15-man squad to play a series of three Tests in New Zealand next month with no changes following their two humiliating defeats to India this month.
Selectors have stuck with the same side which lost to India in back-to-back Tests inside three days by an innings and 51 runs and an innings and 126 runs.
The poor performances in India have sparked a fresh call from former Windies fast bowler Michael Holding for a change in the captaincy as well as calls in some quarters for a shake-up in the squad, including the inclusion of mystery spinner Sunil Narine.
Darren Sammy, who scored 25 runs over four innings and bowled 21 wicketless overs in the series, continues to captain the side.
“He should not be in the team. If Darren Sammy is going to be captaining the West Indies team or playing for West Indies he should be playing in the shorter forms of the game — 50 overs, 20 overs that’s fine. The type of slogging that he tries in 50 and 20 overs, he tries the same in Test matches which don’t work,” said Holding in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo.
“He bats the same way every time he goes out to bat. His bowling is mediocre. If you are going to have Darren Sammy as an all-rounder he has got to take more wickets than he is taking and he also has to be making more runs that he is making.”
Only two West Indian batsmen managed to aggregate more than 100 runs in the series, and the only bowler who had success was offspinner Shane Shillingford with 11 wickets.
No other West Indies bowler picked up more than two wickets.
The first Test against New Zealand starts on December 3 in Dunedin.
Currently at number six on the Test rankings, West Indies will slip one rung lower should they lose 2-0 or worse.
Squad — Darren Sammy (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk & vice-capt), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sheldon Cottrell, Narsingh Deonarine, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Veersammy Permaul, Kieron Powell, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford, Chadwick Walton (wk).
