Windies bowlers call back the past
PACE BARRAGE: GABRIEL AND CO A HANDFUL IN SERIES
St Lucia
Better bowling execution has lifted West Indies to victory in their series against England, the Caribbean team’s former coach Stuart Law has said ahead of the third and final Test starting today.
The underdog hosts clinched the series by winning the first two Tests in one-sided fashion with performances that suggested the fortunes of the moribund West Indies might be on the up after years in the Test doldrums.
Law said West Indies’ pace quartet had bowled a better line than England, whose fast bowlers too often strayed too far outside off-stump.
The raw pace of Shannon Gabriel gave West Indies an extra weapon, someone who “put the wind up” the England batsmen, according to Law.
“You can’t buy pace. It’s a godgiven talent that allows these guys to get up to those speeds,” Law said on a Wisden.com podcast.
The former Australian batsman quit as coach in September to take the same role at England county side Middlesex.
During his two years in the Caribbean Law witnessed up close the ability of West Indies’ fast bowlers, none more intimidating than Gabriel, who was clocked at more than 145km/h in the first Test in Barbados.
“No-one wants to face that pace and I know for a fact a few England boys don’t like facing Shannon,” Law said.
“He wasn’t the main destroyer. He was the one who put the wind up England, and then you had the skill and the craft of Kemar Roach, and Jason Holder with his big swing and bounce and a young firebrand Alzarri Joseph who can let rip at 90-plus as well.
The 30-year-old has taken five wickets in the series at an average of 27.4, and has softened up the England batsmen for Roach, Holder and Joseph, with the trio sharing 27 wickets.
Holder will miss the third Test –suspended due to the team’s slow over rate in the second – which will give West Indies a chance to give another young bowler a gallop in 21-year-old Oshane Thomas, whose pace is on a par with Gabriel’s.
England have some injury concerns.
Pace bowler Ben Stokes has a bruised right heel, while wicketkeeper Ben Foakes incurred a bruised hand in the second Test. – Reuters