AS?THE CROP?OVER?FESTIVAL?heats up in Barbados, West Indies captain Darren Sammy wants the Caribbean calypso cricketers to come to the party.
According to Sammy, it’s now up to the batsmen to dance and move to the beat as he strongly believes the Windies are capable of beating India in the second Test bowling off today at Kensington Oval and squaring the three-match series.
“We need to bat properly. We cannot fault the bowlers for bowling out India twice for under 260. For us to win, our batsmen need to come to the party and put runs on the board,” a relaxed-looking Sammy told reporters during a media conference yesterday.
Sammy’s deputy Brendan Nash has paid the price for a series of batting failures and a new vice-captain was to be chosen last night.
Nash’s place is almost certain to be taken by the stylish Marlon Samuels. The ice-cool Samuels was surprisingly excluded from the starting 11 in the first Test in his Jamaica homeland, which the Windies lost by 63 runs, after an impressive half-century against Pakistan in his only Test in St Kitts on his return to international cricket following a two-year ban for alleged dealings with an Indian bookmaker.
Barbadian Kirk Edwards has also been drafted into the squad and there is speculation in some circles that he could also replace Lendl Simmons, who is yet to score a Test half-century in six matches at an average of 17.
TEAMS:
WEST INDIES (from): Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh Jr, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons
INDIA (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), V.V.S. Laxman (vice-captain), Subramaniam Badrinath, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay
Umpires: Asad Rauf, Ian Gould
TV Umpire: Gregory Brathwaite
Match Referee: Chris Broad
Reserve umpire: Norman Malcolm.
