TTCB – News

New TT pacer set to make debut
January 27, 2010

CLICO Preysal pacer Shannon Gabriel (pictured at right) is expected to make his First Class debut against the Leeward Islands tomorrow in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Four-Day tournament at Four Square Oval in St Philip, Barbados.

Gabriel has been drafted into the national team to replace fellow fast bowler Ravi Rampaul who was selected in the West Indies team to play Australia in five One-Day International matches and two Twenty20 matches down under next month.

Also selected in the West Indies team are Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin.

However allrounder Rayad Emrit has been dropped from the TT team for this weekend’s match.

TT cricketers finished their first training session yesterday at the Wayne Daniel Field with Gabriel along with replacements William Perkins, Gibran Mohammed and Daron Cruickshank all taking part.

Coach Kelvin Williams speaking via a telephone interview yesterday revealed that Gabriel has a good chance of making his First Class debut after impressing during domestic and trial matches.

“I am pretty sure that Shannon will play against the Leeward Islands taking into consideration that Ravi Rampaul will not be with us,” said Williams yesterday. The Clico Preysal pacer took five for 31 against Rahamut’s Evergreen and has been in good form.

“Shannon will bring a lot to the team. It is good to have a guy who can fire it up at the start of the match and it would be nice to get breakthroughs in the top order. We really want our spinners to be bowling to the middle order and many times the spinners have been bowling to the opening pair,” said Williams.

He added that Gabriel would bring the much needed penetration to the bowling lineup with leg-spinner Imran Khan the only bowler thus far to bring an attacking intent.

“The bowlers just need to be more penetrative. Imran Khan has taken about 22 wickets in three games while the rest of the bowlers have just been plugging away,” said Williams.

The TT coach revealed that there could be a different spin attack used against the Leeward Islands to brining a greater attacking threat to the team.

“We have until Friday to look at the wicket and chat about the best bowling attack to select. But there might be some kind of change because we need to be bowling out teams,” said Williams.

The national team focused on bowling and fielding in its first session yesterday afternoon with Williams describing the practice as “highly intense”.

“It was nice to see the players having focus. We did a lot of bowling and fielding. The ground we are going to play on has a poor outfield so I think we needed to work on our ground game to prepare us for the match,” said Williams.

Despite losing three experienced players to the West Indies team the TT coach has revealed his confidence in the four players called into the national team.

“The guys who have been selected in the team have been in the national setup before, they know what it is like and have experience playing regional cricket. Shannon is the only player who is new to the system,” said Williams.

The national team will have its final practice session today at 9 am at the Wayne Daniel Field.