Email Us Email Us Forum Forum
Mail Article Mail Article Print Article Print Article
Advertise Here

15 men and Ravi Rampaul

Sunday, October 19 2003

Ravi Rampaul is going to Zimbabwe! In a surprising move, the West Indies selectors continued to prove very unpredictable as they called up 19-year-old (on the 15th of this month) Ravi Rampaul of Trinidad and Tobago to go to Zimbabwe with the senior team. The right-arm pacer has had alot of press in the past couple of years as a potential candidate for the future of West Indies cricket. The WICB have seemingly stated that the future is now.

The squad as a whole is not very much unpredictable however. As expected, former double world-record-holder Brian Lara has been retained as captain for the series, with Sarwan as his deputy.

The Leadership Quotient
After Hayden's 380, Lara stated that he wants to focus more on team goals now, rather than personal achievements. This would indicate that he's not very concerned with the loss of his record. However, he will be going to Zimbabwe to face the same team (and more accurately - bowling attack) that surrendered Hayden's epic innings, so anything could happen.

Lara's leadership has certainly looked much more thoughtful in his latest captaincy stint and this has been reflected in his batting. Against Sri Lanka and Australia, Lara scored heavily to elevate himself once more to a clear number one PWC ranking, until Hayden stole the honours away. His batting is much more mature and purposeful than before. Indeed, at several times it seemed as though the likes of McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Bichel, MacGill, Vaas and Muralitharan just couldn't get him out even if they had a month to bowl at him. Zimbabwe will be the first overseas team to experience the new Lara and West Indians hope that its not a pleasant experience for the hosts.

Sarwan is at a high point in his career. He had a superb year and a half of cricket to the end of the 2002/03 season, against Sri Lanka earlier this year. In ODI cricket he established himself as a very dependable batsman and in Test cricket, he seems to finally have found that extra 'something' with his batting. With his hundred against Australia, Sarwan proved that he can bat under pressure as he played a fine innings in West Indies' record chase of 418. That innings was his second hundred and his first meaningful hundred in the minds of many, after his maiden ton came against Bangladesh in 2002.

As deputy, Sarwan will no doubt be called upon by Lara to assist in many a decision-making process as he is groomed for the future responsibility. The Guyanese right-hander appears to have all the tools necessary to lead and this series will assist in sharpening those tools.

The Batting
The top two batting duties will expectedly be shared among the Gayle, Hinds and Ganga; and the likely opening combination is Gayle and Hinds, although Hinds generally prefers to bat at three. It would seem as though the best option for the West Indies selectors is to pick six batsmen (including the 'keeper), and Ganga would miss out in such an instance. If that is the case Sarwan should bat at three, with the number four spot obviously reserved for Brian Lara. Chanderpaul and one of Jacobs and Baugh jr. will be the next two in line. Of course there is always the option of swapping Banks with the wicketkeeper slot.

Despite scoring back to back hundreds against the visiting Aussies, Ganga is anything but a sure pick. He followed up his maiden tons with a string of poor performance and had it not been for his responsible innings of 71 in the Red Stripe Bowl on Sunday, he may not have made the cut. Devon Smith for one will be disappointed because he certainly was not the worst batsman in the Australia Test series and yet he hasn't had a look-in since.

In the Tests, Marlon Samuels may well be the odd man out. He showed big signs of improvement during the West Indies tour to India last year, but after his non-selection throughout most of the World Cup, he seemingly fell back into a laxadasical attitude. On more than one occasion he got out to 'don't care' shots. However, in a true mood-swing fashion he bounced back to smash the Sri Lankan bowlers about for a Man of the Series award in the three-ODI series earlier this year.

The Glovework
Personally I would have rested Jacobs for this tour and recalled him for the subsequent South Africa journey, as this would have given Baugh more playing opportunity. Obviously the selectors disagree and Jacobs' presence is likely to shift Baugh into a backup role for the majority of the international tour matches.

The Bowling
In Zimbabwe, the West Indies will have one 'specialist' spin option in Omari Banks, despite the fact that Banks has had more success with the bat than the ball in his short Test stint to date. This means that Dave Mohammed of Trinidad and Tobago misses out yet again, as he did in 2001 when McGarrell toured Zimbabwe ahead of him. The West Indies selectors may well have missed out on the best opportunity to expose Mohammed to international cricket.

One aspect which will go overlooked entering the series is Sarwan's improved leg-spin bowling. During the 2003 Red Strip Bowl, Sarwan was used on more than one occasion to bowl a fair few overs. He did this job with good success and should be quite useful along with Gayle and Samuels in support of Banks.

The fast bowling selections are certainly very much a point of interest. Fidel Edwards (21), Jerome Taylor (19) and Ravi Rampaul (19) all head off on their maiden tours at senior level. Their combined age is 59, which is an average age just under 20.

Edwards made an impressive debut (5/36) against Sri Lanka this year, but will be anxious to prove that that performance was not a fluke. He possesses decent pace and an unorthodox action (a blend of Jeff Thompson and Waqar Younis) with which he still manages to bowl accurately and swing the ball a bit.

Jamaican Jerome Taylor displaces his team mate Daren Powell from the squad and is perhaps the quickest of the three. He bowled well during the 2003 Red Stripe Bowl, with some very aggressive spells. Taylor has not had the sort of initiation as Edwards into Test cricket, but still showed great potential all the while.

In the experience department, Drakes and Dillon lead the charge. Dillon stands as the only current West Indian bowler with 100+ wickets in either form of the game, while Drakes has proven a more than useful recall to the senior side. Drakes adds alot to the batting in the lower order, as he showed against Australia in the fourth Test this year. Perhaps the recent lightning strike would have woken up Dillon and he will regain some consistency in his game.

Corey Collymore rounds out the squad. He made a very successful return to Test cricket against Sri Lanka in June and followed that up with a brief stint of County Cricket for Warwickshire. Collymore's time in England was not exceedingly fruitful statistically, but surely it could only have helped his game. Indeed he is the only West Indian bowler of the current Test crop who has shown that he can consistently swing the ball at a fairly decent pace.

In Summation...
These powers combine for a diverse touring party but a potentially strong one nonetheless. Zimbabwe will be hard pressed against the West Indies batting and will need to bowl accurately to keep the likes of Gayle, Hinds and Lara in check.

West Indies will be looking to find some success in the persons of their fast bowlers ahead of a big tour to South Africa. The series should provide several points of interest: Lara facing Zimbabwe in the aftermath of 380; Edwards' and Taylor's overseas debuts and perhaps the most intriguing - the prospect of Rampaul's Test debut. At this stage, I would say that it is unlikely that Rampaul would play any of the Tests, but cricket is very unpredictable and the West Indian selectors even more so.

---

Interesting facts...
1/ In Ganga, Gayle, Samuels, Sarwan, Collymore, Taylor, Edwards, Baugh, Banks and Rampaul the West Indies have a total of ten (10) players who are 25 years or younger and thirteen (13) players who are under the age of 30, with Lara, Drakes and Jacobs being the exceptions.
2/ The average age of the squad is 25.25 years and the average of those under 30 is 23.4.
3/ The West Indies bowling attack poses an average age of 24. They have played just 48 Tests between them with Dillon having played 34 of those Tests - 70.8%. Those 48 Tests are exactly half of what Brian Lara (96) has played in his career. The six-prong pace attack averages 24.5 in age.
4/ Five (5) cricketers - Collymore, Edwards, Taylor, Baugh and Banks - played either their first or second Test this year. Rampaul is the lone debutant.

Posted by Liam