West Indies is on a long tour of New Zealand and they are without some key players including fast bowler Kemar Roach and opening batsman Chris Gayle. The team includes opening bowlers Tino Best, Shannon Gabriel and the young fast bowler Sheldon Cotterell who is inexperienced. If the West Indies cannot bowl well in New Zealand, it will be difficult for them to win the Test series in New Zealand.
Sunil Narine must be included into the Test team. Narine is a strike bowler and though his Test career has not been one flourished with wickets, he should not be struggling to make the West Indies Test eleven. The West Indies selectors on tour will be best advised to play both Narine and Shillingford in the Test series. The combination of these two bowlers will cause havoc against teams. West Indies selectors on tour need to look at the team form a different perspective.
BOWLING IS ESSENTIAL IN TEST MATCHES
Wickets must be taken in order to win Test matches, unlike limited overs when the required overs are completed the game is over. Sunil Narine bowls appreciably well under any condition and this Test place must not be questionable. International cricket experts have found it to be unproductive not to have narrative in the Test matches. Narine must be reinstated in the Test team.
NEW ZEALAND BLASTs ORDINARY BOWLING
On a wicket with lots of grass on it and some movement, the West Indies after winning the toss and sending New Zealand into bat saw their bowlers lacking penetration and ignorant of how to pick up wickets under the prevailing condition. New Zealand scored 367 runs for three wickets on the first day with Ross Taylor scoring a century and Brendon McCullum scoring 109 not out with 74 runs in boundaries. Taylor was 103 not out. West Indies fast bowler Tino Best bowled with speed but with little effect; he picked up one wicket on the first day. Shane Shillingford, Darren Sammy and Shannon Gabriel were also ineffective.
TEST CRICKET BOWLING
The player is expected to bowl according to the setting of the field. Catching positions must be exploited and bowlers simply must have the knowledge of where to put the ball. Many West Indies bowlers are not delivering the ball in the correct places frequently to pick up wickets.
Unfortunately, Kemar Roach is out of the series because of an injury. He would have loved to play on that type of wicket for the first day of the Test match because of the light grass.
Tino Best needs to cut his pace and control the ball. He must try to ensure that he makes the batsman play the ball by placing it on the stumps. It is hoped that head coach Ottis Gibson will see it as a priority to bring Sunil Narine in for the second Test match.
