Shannon Gabriel

The players were among the 292 announced who have been shortlisted based on interest shown by the IPL franchises and represent about 30 per cent of the actual numbers of Caribbean players who had enrolled for the draft.

In addition to the three aforementioned players, Oshane Thomas, Chemar Holder and Obed McCoy were also shortlisted along with Akeal Hosein, Romario Shepherd and Kyle Mayers.

Sheldon Cottrell, Fabian Allen and Keemo Paul also made the cut as well as Carlos Brathwaite, Sherfane Rutherford, and Shannon Gabriel.

Jayden Seales, Fidel Edwards, Alzarri Joseph, Jon Ross Jaggesar complete the list of West Indies who will be hoping for lucrative contracts in the coming draft.

A total of 1097 players had registered for the 2021 IPL Draft.

The 28-year-old Barbadian, who is also the number-one-ranked Test all-rounder in the world, took match figures of seven wickets for 91 runs in the first Test against England in the #RaisetheBat series that concluded on Sunday with the Caribbean men winning the closely fought match by four wickets.

Holder’s 6 for 42 in the first innings against England at the Ageas Stadium in Southampton, helped restrict the home side to 204 on Thursday’s second day and helped set up a famous victory for the West Indies.

The performance that included 1 for 49 in England’s second innings, earned the lanky medium pacer 32 points in the Test rankings taking him to 862 points.

Those points also moved him ahead of New Zealand's Neil Wagner who has 843 ranking points.

Australia’s Pat Cummings leads the rankings with 904 points.

Kemar Roach, who went wicketless in the match is ranked 16^th with 731 points while Man-of-the-Match Shannon Gabriel is ranked 18^th with 726 points. Gabriel took 9 wickets in the match and was a key player in the West Indies victory on Sunday.

Athanaze, the left-handed batter, is the captain of Windward Islands Volcanoes while Jordan, the right-arm seam bowler, plays for Barbados Pride.

Both have demonstrated good form in the first two rounds of the current four-day West Indies Championship.

Athanaze had scores of 41 and 51 against Trinidad & Tobago Red Force in Round 1 and followed up with a career-best 141 against Guyana Harpy Eagles in Round 2. He is a product of the West Indies Under 19s Rising Stars where he was one of the stand-out players at the 2018 ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup.

Jordan had match figures of 5-86 against Guyana and followed up with 7-113 against Jamaica Scorpions to be one of the leading wicket-takers in the West Indies Championship after two rounds of matches.

Athanaze and Jordan replace left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican and batter Nkrumah Bonner who are part of the squad for the just-concluded series in Zimbabwe.

Jayden Seales is unavailable for selection following a knee injury and subsequent surgery, while Anderson Philiip has returned to training but is not yet match-fit.

Lead Selector, The Most Hon. Dr Desmond Haynes said: “Athanaze is one of the young players who we have invested in, and he played well in the ‘A Team’ and CWI President’s XI. He showed great promise in the CG United Super50 last year and then got his first hundred in the West Indies Championship last week. We believe he should be given an opportunity at this level. He has also showed leadership, as captain of the Windwards at the start of this season.”

Haynes added: “Jordan has been very impressive from last year, he has continued to bowl well, and has been excellent in the first two matches so far this year. He is very skilful, can bowl the new ball, and looks to put the ball in the right areas. He is also a sharp fielder and good catcher close to the wicket. This will be a challenging tour. There is no easy away tour in Test cricket. South Africa have a good team, but I am sure we will be up for the task and will do well in these two Test matches.”

The upcoming Series is the final Test fixture for both teams in the ICC World Test Championship. West Indies are currently in sixth place and have the opportunity, with a Series win to move above South Africa, currently in fourth place, in the final table.

West Indies are due to arrive in South Africa on 17 February. They will face South Africa in two Test matches at SuperSport Park in Centurion (28 February to 4 March) and the Wanderers in Johannesburg (8 to 12 March). Following the Tests, West Indies will then play a white ball series. The squads for these will named at a later date.

FULL SQUAD

Kraigg Brathwaite (Captain)

Jermaine Blackwood (Vice Captain)

Alick Athanaze

Tagenarine Chanderpaul

Roston Chase

Joshua Da Silva

Shannon Gabriel

Jason Holder

Akeem Jordan

Alzarri Joseph

Kyle Mayers

Gudakesh Motie

Raymon Reifer

Kemar Roach

Devon Thomas

The Red Force started the day 51-3, needing 110 more runs to make the Pride bat again, and they got off to the worst possible start after Chase removed Jason Mohammed for 10 to leave the score at 55-4.

55-4 became 64-5 as opener Keagan Simmons was next to go for 31, caught off the bowling of Chase.

Yannic Cariah was the only other batsman to put up any resistance, finishing 35 not out as Joshua Da Silva (14), Imran Khan (2), Terrance Hinds (1), Uthman Muhammad (7), and Shannon Gabriel (8) all fell in quick succession to restrict the Red Force to 139 all out, condemning them to their second straight outright loss.

Chase took 3-26 from 12 overs while Akeem Jordan and Justin Greaves were also instrumental with 3-31 off 11.1 overs and 2-27 from nine overs, respectively.

Final scores: Trinidad and Tobago Red Force 133 and 139, Barbados Pride 294.

Shannon Gabriel then took two of the four Bangladeshi wickets to fall by the end of play that left the West Indies fully in charge of the match.

Resuming from their overnight score of 223 for 5 with Bonner on 74 and Da Silva on 22, the pair that put on a sixth-wicket stand of 45 overnight, extended that partnership to 88 when Bonner was dismissed by Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who had him caught by Mohammed Mithun at leg slip for 90, his highest Test score.

His dismissal brought Alzarri Joseph to the crease and together with Da Silva put on 118 runs for the seventh wicket which took the West Indies from 266 for 6 to 384 for 7 when the Trinidadian wicketkeeper/batsman was bowled by Taijul Islam for 92, which surpassed his previous best of 57 against New Zealand last December.

Joseph went shortly after with the score at 396, caught by wicketkeeper Liton Das swiping leg side at a Abu Jayed delivery. The Antiguan hit eight fours and five sixes in his score of 82 that was just four runs short of his Test-best of 86 made against New Zealand in early December 2020.

The West Indies added 12 more runs with Jayed and Islam mopping up the last two wickets as the visitors were all out for 409, their best total of the series.

Jayed returned figures of 4 for 98 while Taijul Islam took 4 for 108 in the West Indies innings that lasted 142.2 overs.

Tasked with batting out the remaining 37 overs to conclude the day’s play, Shannon Gabriel dismissed Soumya Sarkar for a duck and Naismul Hossain Shanto for 4, to have Bangladesh in early trouble at 11 for 2 after just 14 balls.

Tamim Iqbal and Monimul Haque began to repair the damage with a third-wicket stand of 58 when Rahkeem Cornwall had Haque caught behind for 21 as Bangladesh stumbled to 69 for 3. The home side fell into deeper trouble two runs later when Joseph had Iqbal caught at short midwicket for 44.

Mushfiqur Rahim, who is unbeaten on 27 and Mithun, six, ensured that Bangladesh got to the close on 105 for 4, still 304 runs behind the West Indies first innings total.

The West Indies are playing an intra-squad match in preparation for their three-Test series against England starting on July 8.

Brathwaite faced 162 balls for his 84 that included nine fours while Hope scored 83 during a knock that helped keep the middle order together before the team collapsed after he was dismissed at 275 for 6.

The last three batsmen failed to score meaning the Brathwaite XI was unable to push the score past the three-hundred-run mark.

Brathwaite’s XI got off to a shaky start when John Campbell was caught by Alzarri Joseph off the bowling of Shannon Gabriel for 0 with the score at 9. Sharmarh Brooks and Brathwaite added 40 for the second wicket before the former was caught behind off Gabriel for 17.

Hope joined Brathwaite at the crease and together they mounted a third-wicket stand of 102. However, with the score at 152, Kemar Roach breached Brathwaite’s defences and ended his 220-minute stay at the crease.

Hope, now settled, and Roston Chase began to stage another useful partnership but with the score at 224 Preston McSween induced Chase to nick one to wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva for 37.

From there it was down to Hope to hold the lower order together but once he got out with the score at 273, Joseph quickly wrapped up the tail as the last four wickets fell with the score at 275.

The lanky Antiguan ended with figures of 4 for 60. Shannon Gabriel who did the early damage returned figures of 3 for 32 while there was a wicket each for Roach and Rakheem Cornwall.

England skipper Joe Root gave the signal to declare the innings on 469-9 just about an hour before close of play but before that, the side’s vice-captain, Ben Stokes, 176, and opener Dom Dibley, 120, made the West Indies toil.

Chase, himself, bowled a mammoth 44 overs to claim 5-143, while pacers Kemar Roach, 2-58, Alzarri Joseph and Holder, 1-70, offered support with their wickets.

In reply, the West Indies have already lost the services of John Campbell, after Sam Curran trapped him leg before for 12. Opener Kraigg Brathwaite, 6, and Joseph, the night watchman, 14, are the batsmen at the crease, with the West Indies 32-1.

“Most teams being out there for 160-odd overs you would begin to see the tiredness and the lines and lengths start to go wrong, but we didn’t let it get away from us. We still kept the run rate to under three and that was our aim from the beginning,” said Chase.

A large part of that were the 32 overs bowled by Roach. The pacer went at a miserly 1.76 runs per over even though he didn’t get among the wickets til late in the day when he had Stokes caught behind attempting a reverse sweep, and Woakes caught at slip with a peach of a delivery with the very next ball.

“We didn’t get wickets in clusters or really fast like we did in the first game but we stuck to the game plan and stuck to the task,” said Chase.

The West Indies were in for a surprise after believing they could get the most out of the wicket on day one under gloomy skies and with some moisture from rainy days still affecting the pitch.

“I thought the conditions played a big role in us deciding to bowl first. Outside was very overcast and dark, the lights were on before play even started, and having the success we had in the first game as well, everyone was down for the decision to bowl first. But as I said, the English batters played tremendously so kudos to them,” said Chase.

There were a few instances when things looked to be falling apart for the West Indies toward the end of the England innings.

Roach dropped a catch, pushing his effort over the ropes for six, Shannon Gabriel missed an easy run out, having caught the return but failed to make contact with the stumps, as well as a couple of other misfields.

Those instances, though, Chase explained are bound to occur after such a long time in the field.

We made a few blunders in the field which is going to happen when you’re out there for that long because your body is under tremendous strain but all in all I think it was a good effort from the guys,” said Chase.

The bowling unit of Kemar Roach, Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel and on occasion Alzarri Joseph has done well for the West Indies in recent series, leading an excited Estwick's claim that the West Indies were ‘beginning to get blessed again with fast bowlers’ and that 'the current crop was the best group since the great days.’

While agreeing that the unit did possess some amount of talent, Mohammed insisted Estwick’s comparison was a bit over the top.

“I think there is too much being made about the quality of our fast bowling.  Roddy Estwick made the point that this is our best fast bowling unit since the great era, that is complete nonsense,” Mohammed told the Mason and Guest Radio program.

“These four fast bowlers are really good and show tremendous talent, but I think Roddy is getting a little carried away, there is no way this quartet compares with the like of Roberts, Malcolm, Croft, and Garner,” he added.

In addition to the afore mention trio, however, the current crop is also able to call on the likes of bowlers Chemar Holder and O’shane Thomas who have plenty of pace, if not the necessary experience.

A total of 18 players have been offered contracts for the upcoming 2021-22 season which runs from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.

Meanwhile, Roston Chase, Shamarh Brooks and Shane Dowrich are among several who have lost their retainer contracts. Also losing their contracts were Sunil Ambris, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd and Oshane Thomas.

“Contracts offered for the 2021-22 period sees 18 players being retained, a decrease of four from last year. Jason Holder is the only player to retain his all-format contract due to his strong Test and T20I performances during the evaluation period,” CWI Lead Selector Roger Harper confirmed.

“There are several new players offered red-ball contracts earned by their strong performances during the last period. A number of players were not retained because they did not meet the minimum requirements.”

CWI Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams was pleased for the players who were retained.

“I am happy for all the players who have been offered retainer contracts for the upcoming period. Especially pleasing was the number of players who were awarded first-time contracts in recognition of their performances during the period under review,” he said.

“I know that the 11 players who have lost their international retainers will be striving and fighting hard to get back into the teams and earn their central contracts back next year.  These players, along with our T20 specialists, will ensure that we have genuine competition for places that will push everyone to attain higher standards of performance.”

The evaluation period for the 2021-22 contracts covered performances and statistics from April 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021 (this was also supported by statistics from the previous 2019-2020 evaluation period). This allows for all players to be appraised immediately after the evaluation period and provides a notice period before new contracts on July 1, 2021.

Below are the players who have been awarded retainer contracts.

All-Format Contracts: Jason Holder.

Red Ball Contracts: Kraigg Brathwaite, Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner*, Rahkeem Cornwall, Joshua Da Silva*, Shannon Gabriel, Kyle Mayers* and Kemar Roach.

White Ball Contracts: Kieron Pollard, Fabien Allen, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein*, Evin Lewis, Alzarri Joseph, Nicholas Pooran and Hayden Walsh Jr.

*Players offered contracts for the first time in 2021-2022

Players who are no longer receiving international retainer contracts are:

All Format Contracts: Roston Chase.

Red Ball Contracts: Shamarh Brooks and Shane Dowrich.

White Ball Contracts: Sunil Ambris, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd and Oshane Thomas.

 All players who are no longer on International retainer contracts are offered an A* grade Regional Franchise Contract for the following year.

Da Silva scored an unbeaten 133 as Jason Holder’s XI recovered from 120-5 yesterday to post 272 against the bowling of Preston McSween, 3-28, and Chemar Holder, 2-35.

There was also a wicket apiece for Oshane Thomas, 1-24, Keon Harding, 1-69, Markino Mindley, 1-32, Anderson Phillip, 1-16, and Rahkeem Cornwall, 1-32.

Da Silva formed good partnerships with Raymon Reifer, who scored 22, and Alzarri Joseph, who scored 38. Yesterday, only Sunil Ambris, with 25 managed a score in the double digits.

In fact, the next best scorer for Holder’s XI, who are competing against a team led by his vice-captain Kraigg Brathwaite, was the extras column, with 43 runs going a-begging.

In reply, Brathwaite’s XI have found things just as difficult, with Kyle Mayers, on 43, and Mindley on nine, the batsmen at the crease with the score on 112-7 from just 25 overs.

Shannon Gabriel has been the pick of the bowlers for Holder’s XI with 3-34.

Kemar Roach, 1-14, Holder, 1-21, Joseph, 1-17, and Reifer, 1-21, have also got in on the action.

Earlier, Da Silva, batted for just over six hours, facing 248 deliveries for his tally and smacked 17 boundaries in a mature knock.

The West Indies are in preparation mode for the #RaisetheBat series against England, with the first match of a three-Test affair slated to begin on July 8 at the Rose Bowl in South Hampton.

The team will then play in two games at their Old Trafford base on July 16 and 24.

At the close of play, Karunaratne, who was dropped on 14 by Jermaine Blackwood, is on 132 and De Silva on 56. Together they have so far put on 97 for the fourth wicket as Sri Lanka eye a massive first innings total on Monday.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Sri Lanka got off to a slow start but gradually built momentum throughout the day.

Karunaratne and Nissanka opened the batting and crept to 61-0 without loss at lunch. The 50 partnership came off 132 balls as the home side took a more cautious approach against the West Indies bowling led by Shannon Gabriel.

The partnership would endure until after the interval when Gabriel induced an edge from Nissanka, who was caught at slip by Rahkeem Cornwall for 56 and with the score at 139.

The West Indies would make further inroads fairly quickly afterwards when at 164-1, Roston Chase dismissed Oshado Fernando for three and then at 170-2 removed Angelo Matthews also for three.

However, that was the last success the West Indies bowlers would have for the remainder of play.

Gabriel has so far taken 1-56 from 12 overs while Chase has 2-42 from 17.

Burns was the only dismissal in the morning session on Saturday, caught by John Campbell at backward point off Roston Chase for a 104-ball 42.

Sibley got to his 50 off 164 deliveries but lost out to Shannon Gabriel soon after.

Joe Denly, 20, and Zack Crawley, 7, are the men at the crease with England 125-2.

England had resumed its second innings on 15-0 at the empty Rose Bowl in reply to West Indies' first-innings total of 318. Progress was slow in the morning with at one point only three runs off nine overs, and 64 runs from 30 overs overall in the session.

England scored 204 in its first innings of the rain-affected test.

The 32-year-old pace bowler was initially named as the 15th member to the official Test squad for the upcoming tour.  Gabriel, one of the team’s lead strike bowlers, has not played cricket since September of last year after a brief spell with Gloucestershire.  The player was sidelined after suffering an ankle injury that required surgery.

Head coach of the West Indies Phil Simmons, however, recently revealed the player had been training well and would be in contention for a spot in the final day Test squad.

“We have to put this in perspective.  We selected 14, but Shannon, as we know, has come back from injury and being a senior member of the squad in the past two or three years we would have to look at him if he is up to that fitness level heading into the first Test,” Simmons told members of the media on a conference call on Saturday.

Gabriel claimed eight wickets and bowled with plenty of menace when the teams met in the Caribbean last year.  The West Indies won the Test series 2-1.  The player was, however, suspended for five One Day internationals after a verbal exchange with England batsman Joe Root.

Initially, the 32-year-old quick was included as a reserve, having recovered from an ankle injury in the past several months.  With no competitive cricket available to the player during the COVID-19 pandemic, doubts had surfaced regarding his fitness.

Gabriel has, however, proven himself match fit over the last couple of weeks and is expected to return to the bowling line-up.  In the warm-up matches, the bowler has claimed eight wickets at an average of just over 15.

Thursday was the last day of the West Indies' second and final warm-up game.  The team’s coach Phil Simmons returned to the bench after his latest negative coronavirus test.

West Indies captain Jason Holder, who has struggled for form with the bat, tried to gain more time in the middle by promoting himself up the order to open the batting for his team, against the Kraigg Brathwaite XI.  The all-rounder could only manage two off 15 deliveries, for a total of just seven runs in the warm-up games.

Gabriel was much better as he took four for 42 as Brathwaite's XI were bowled out for 178 in a drawn encounter, after resuming on 112 for seven.

The Windies are currently preparing for a return to international cricket with the upcoming tour of England, after a globally enforced break due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Ahead of the series, the regional team is likely to be encouraged by the fact that it once again has a full complement of first choice strike bowlers. The likes of Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, and Alzarri Joseph are all available having recovered from injury.  The regional team’s bowling attack has on occasion shown that they can be a handful for even top batting line-ups.  Against England, in the Caribbean last year, Roach and Holder both claimed four-wicket hauls, with Gabriel and Joseph getting among the wickets as well.  Estwick believes a major difference that has boosted the team's bowling performance in recent years is its level of fitness.

“What we’ve done is to improve our fitness,  now we can sustain pressure,” Estwick said via a news conference.

“If you look back in the 80s, that’s one thing the fast bowlers had, it’s fitness.  Another thing is that they (current players) are now understanding fast bowling.  They have got to that age, Kemar and Shannon they are leading the charge and they are very experienced,” he added.

 “Jason Holder has become a much better Test match bowler in the last two years and Alzarri Joseph is now beginning to show his potential.  So were have four fast bowlers where we can challenge any team in the world.”

The 33-year-old pace bowler, who has been playing for Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the West Indies Championship, was not named among the 15-man squad for the first Test or Presidents XI.  His omission is, however, due to sustaining a hamstring injury.

“Shannon was injured in the game that he played in Trinidad.  We were told by the medical panel that he is having a bit of a problem with his hamstring and would not be fit for selection,” Haynes told members of the media on Wednesday.

“Shannon did very well against England the last tour here.  He’s probably our fastest bowler and we are hoping to get him fit so that he can be on the park."

Overall Gabriel has taken 37 wickets against England in 11 matches and took 5 for 25 and overall figures of 9 for 137 when he face England in 2020.  The English went on to win the series 2-1.  Concerns have been raised over the player’s workload in recent times after the fast bowler has found himself sidelined by a few injuries.

With just two rounds of matches left in the regional first-class season, the Red Force sit sixth on the eight-team standings with 51 points from five games.

The Leeward Islands Hurricanes currently lead the table with 81.2 points.

Gabriel took a back seat earlier in the season with Jayden Seales available to play the first five matches of the campaign.

However, with Seales unavailable for the final two games due to his commitment to play in the England County Championship with Sussex, Gabriel has made himself available for the final two matches.

Meanwhile, Cariah is also available following his stint in the Bangladesh Premier League T20 and Jyd Goolie also comes back into the team after recovering from injury which kept him out of the previous game.

Veteran leg-spinner Imran Khan was left out of the squad having played just one game for the Red Force this season.

Joshua Da Silva will captain the team with Bryan Charles serving as vice-captain.

The players will have the option of playing for their local clubs when the T&T Cricket Board Sunday League 50-over competition bowls off with matches tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

The Red Force will take on CCC in round five at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground from April 10-13 before finishing their season against Jamaica as Sabina Park from April 17-20.

T&T Red Force squad: Joshua Da Silva (captain), Brian Charles (vice-captain), Vikash Mohan, Kjorn Ottley, Amir Jangoo, Jason Mohammed, Tion Webster, Anderson Phillip, Shannon Gabriel, Terrance Hinds, Jyd Goolie, Yannic Cariah, Khary Pierre.

Gabriel has taken 161 wickets in 56 Tests, placing him joint 12th in the West Indies all-time wicket-takers list and more recently was the joint-leading wicket taker in the CG United Super50 Cup for the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in November last year.

Gabriel’s last Test Match was against Sri Lanka in November 2021.  Warrican’s last international appearance was also in Sri Lanka in December 2021 when he played in both matches in the Test Series. Motie made his Test debut for West Indies in Antigua in June 2022 in the first Test of the two-match Series victory against Bangladesh.

Jayden Seales is unavailable for selection following a knee injury and subsequent surgery; while Anderson Phillip is also unavailable due to injury.

Lead Selector, The Most Hon Dr Desmond Haynes said: “This is the start of the international calendar for 2023 and we will hope to start with a win. We appreciate it won’t be as easy assignment as Zimbabwe, like most other teams in world cricket, play very well on their home soil on pitches that will support their style of play.”

Haynes added: “We looked at the conditions we anticipate playing in, and have included two left-arm spinners who didn’t go to Australia in Motie and Warrican. With our fast bowlers, Seales has done extremely well for us since he started back in 2021, but with him unavailable we have decided that Gabriel would be best able to fill that role. He (Gabriel) is an experienced bowler who has been at the international level for over 10 years and has knowledge of the conditions in Zimbabwe when we won there in 2017.”

West Indies will play both Test matches at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, with the first Test running from 4 to 8 February, and the second match from 12 to 16 February. Ahead of the two-Test Series, West Indies will have a three-day warm-up match against a local side set for 28 to 30 January at Bulawayo Athletic Club. All matches start at 10am local time (4am Eastern Caribbean/3am Jamaica).

The last Test Series between Zimbabwe and the West Indies was also played at Queens Sports Club in October 2017. West Indies won the two-match Series 1-0, winning the first contest by 117 runs with the second Test ending in a draw.

FULL SQUAD

Kraigg Brathwaite (captain)

Jermaine Blackwood (vice-captain)

Nkrumah Bonner

Tagnarine Chanderpaul

Roston Chase

Joshua Da Silva

Shannon Gabriel

Jason Holder

Alzarri Joseph

Kyle Mayers

Gudakesh Motie

Raymon Reifer

Kemar Roach

Devon Thomas

Jomel Warrican

MATCH SCHEDULE

28-30 January: three-day warm-up match at Bulawayo Athletic Club

4-8 February: 1st Test at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo

12-16 February: 2nd Test at Queens Sports Club

The 32-year-old pace bowler had a first Test to forget, failing to claim a wicket for the entire match.  Overall, he ended with figures of 0 for 89 in 27 overs.  The bowler last went wicketless in a match last year, in the second Test against England where he ended 0 for 122.

In assessing the player’s most recent performances, however, Simmons dismissed Gabriel’s first-match struggles as just a blip and looked forward to a much better showing in the second Test.

“I thought in Bangladesh, he bowled exceptionally well in both Test matches and he was the main one, on the occasion in the first Test, who turned things around with his spell in the evening,” Simmons said in an assessment of the player’s recent form.

“He had a bad game and bowlers have that. Two of the main bowlers did not have a good game but that’s one game,” he added.

“I think he has been unsung, in New Zealand he was unsung, in Bangladesh he was unsung, so, one bad game does not change him being the strike bowler.”

In New Zealand, despite a tough series for the regional team, Gabriel, who was the pick of the bowlers, extracted plenty of pace and bounce from the surface to claim six wickets in two matches, where New Zealand only batted once.

Gabriel, whose nine wickets made him man of the match in the first Test, lost his run-up in the very first over and failed to find his usual accuracy throughout the first day where England recovered from 81-3 to end on 207-3.

Gabriel’s first spell was just three overs, the first of which was almost disastrous.

He had to abort his run-up on his first intended ball of the innings, bowled a wide with the second, then went for four wides in the very same over.

And after a second spell, in which another of his deliveries went so wide it stung the fingers of captain Jason Holder at second slip, the pacer had to go off for treatment before bowling a third spell towards the end of the day.

In that day, Ben Stokes, 59 not out, and Dom Sibley, 86 not out, oversaw a recovery that staved off more than 50 overs from the West Indies.

Gabriel only bowled 10 overs throughout the day with figures, going wicketless at a cost of 32 runs.

“Shannon, he had a stretch. He’s just a little stiff. I think he’ll be good to go,” said Brathwaite when questioned about the state of the paceman’s fitness.