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West Indies squad for first Test

Denesh Ramdin (capt), Sulieman Benn, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford, Jerome Taylor

Fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach, who have battled injuries recently, have been recalled to the West Indies squad for the first Test against New Zealand, which starts in Kingston on June 8. The squad also includes offspinner Shane Shillingford, who was cleared for a return to international cricket earlier this year, following remedial work on his bowling action.The selectors also named left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn in the 13-member squad, while Dwayne Bravo was ruled out due to an injury sustained during IPL 2014.Plagued by injuries since his debut in 2003, Taylor recently returned to competitive cricket for Jamaica in a one-dayer against the touring Ireland side in February. He then finished as the second-highest wicket-taker for Jamaica in the Regional Four Day Competition, bagging 25 wickets in eight games at an average of 25.28. Taylor’s last Test appearance was in November 2009, against Australia in Brisbane.Roach, on the other hand, has not played a Test since the home series against Zimbabwe in March 2013. A shoulder injury forced him out of the India tour in November last year after which he underwent a surgery. Since April, Roach has been working with BCA coach Vasbert Drakes, West Indies coach Ottis Gibson and his Maple teammate Corey Collymore – all three are former West Indies fast bowlers – in order to get his shoulder back in shape for bowling. A few months ago, he escaped serious injury following a car accident in his native Barbados.Shillingford was suspended for an illegal bowling action in December, during West Indies’ tour to New Zealand. He made a successful return to competitive cricket with a match haul of 11 wickets for Windward Islands in a Regional Four Day Competition game in March and was subsequently cleared for an international return. The offspinner, however, cannot bowl his doosra, as it remains illegal.In a side packed largely with pacers, Benn, who last played a Test in December 2010, is expected to reinforce the side’s spin department. West Indies will miss the services of Sunil Narine, who was disqualified from selection for the Tests against New Zealand after missing the deadline to report to the West Indies camp in order to play the IPL final.The series will be the first assignment for Denesh Ramdin, who took over as Test captain from Darren Sammy last month. Sammy then announced his retirement from Test cricket hours after Ramdin’s appointment. The wicketkeeper-batsman has led the national side in three T20s and an ODI and has more extensive leadership experience with Trinidad & Tobago.The Jamaica Test is also likely to be Chris Gayle’s 100th match in the format. Gayle struggled with a back injury during the IPL and recently sought treatment in Germany, aiming to be fit for the landmark Test in front of his home crowd.

Brendon McCullum on BJ Watling: “The guy never complains, gets on with the job, goes out there and keeps for a hundred-and-something overs and goes out and bats for seven hours trying to save a Test match for his country.”•Associated Press

Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand captain, has said the post-tea session on the first day, when they went from 159 for 3 to 221 all out, cost his side the Trinidad Test match.”I thought right through the Test, barring one session where we lost seven for 60, we were pretty good,” McCullum said, after West Indies wrapped up a 10-wicket win on the fifth day. “I thought with the ball, and once they got 400, the application and intensity with which our seamers bowled, particularly, was outstanding, something we can be really proud of and any other day they could have easily knocked the top off the West Indies batting order.”I keep going back to that first day when we lost seven for 60. That put us behind the game and allowed West Indies back into the series and that they did, they kept coming at us and putting us under pressure and obviously today they got the rewards for that.”After conceding a 239-run first-innings lead, New Zealand played out more than 150 overs in their second innings, led by wicketkeeper BJ Watling, who batted for more than six hours to score an unbeaten 66. McCullum was full of praise for Watling’s effort.”BJ is fast becoming my favourite cricketer, actually. His strength of character and his fighting qualities. The guy never complains, gets on with the job, goes out there and keeps for a hundred-and-something overs and goes out and bats for seven hours trying to save a Test match for his country.”It’s not the first time he’s done it. He’s done it on numerous occasions now and he’s certainly a guy who’s becoming a strong leader within the group as well. He’s doing that through his actions and leading by example and that’s a really good sign because we’re still a young team, so we need as many leaders within the group as possible.”Despite Watling’s efforts, and those of Mark Craig, who scored 67 batting at No. 10, New Zealand could only set West Indies a target of 93, which they overhauled in a mere 13.2 overs with Chris Gayle hitting an unbeaten 46-ball 80. McCullum said he thought anything between 100 and 150 might have challenged West Indies, particularly considering the looming threat of rain, which had already delayed the start of their chase by more than an hour.”Trying to stretch our lead if we could get anywhere around 100 to 150, we thought there would be a fair chance, especially if there was some rain hanging around. If they’d had to come in they may have lost an hour or two and that would have put a bit of scoreboard pressure on the Windies as well, so that was our plan and we got through to 90-odd, which was a pretty good effort, but we knew Gayle was going to come out and play aggressively.”We might have picked him up in the first over or two trying to play like that, we might have created some anxiety among their side but in the end he got away and played the innings he did.”McCullum was confident New Zealand could turn it around in the third Test in Barbados and take home a series win.”We’ve been going pretty well in Test cricket in the last 12 to 18 months and our formula has become pretty familiar to us, and some guys are always going to miss out and some guys are always going to get runs. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re still trying to do the right things and keep trying to execute our gameplan. If we do that, and we have a little bit of luck as well going our way in Barbados, I’m confident we can turn this performance around and again finish with a strong performance.”

Somerset wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter has confirmed he will need to undergo surgery after suffering a serious facial injury while batting against Northamptonshire – but says there will be no lasting damage to his eye.He tweeted: “Injury update: broken nose and a fractured orbital socket. Surgery is required but thankfully no lasting damage to the eye.”Kieswetter, 26, sustained a fractured cheekbone and broken nose after being hit by a David Willey bouncer during the opening day of Somerset’s County Championship match at Wantage Road on Saturday.Kieswetter, who posted a picture on his Twitter account of the damage caused, with his right eye swollen shut, went to hospital on Sunday for tests where the extent of his injuries were confirmed and on Monday he gave an update to his situation.Kieswetter was forced to retire hurt against Northamptonshire after a short ball from Willey went through the gap above the grill on the batsman’s helmet and struck him flush on the right eye.It is not known how long Kieswetter will be absent for, with replacement wicketkeeper Alex Barrow taking his place behind the stumps in the current fixture.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKumar Sangakkara made his tenth double-century•AFP

Kumar Sangakkara continued to torment Pakistan with his tenth double-century that took him past Brian Lara and put him only behind Don Bradman’s 12. Sri Lanka began the day 199 runs behind but Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews wiped off the deficit with a 181-run partnership for the fourth wicket.Mathews fell just before tea for the fifth time in the nineties, the last three of which have all been against Pakistan, and all 91s. But Sangakkara carried on after equaling Bradman for 18 scores of 150-plus and ensured Sri Lanka had a healthy lead before they declared to leave Pakistan’s tired batsmen 20 minutes to survive till stumps.Sri Lanka had almost the perfect finish to the day when Khurram Manzoor nicked Rangana Herath behind. After conceding 451 in the first innings, they kept Pakistan in the field for six sessions, and now have the chance to put the visiting batsmen under serious pressure on the final day.Pakistan did not help themselves by dropping Sangakkara first ball in the morning off Junaid Khan, and then on 168 off Saeed Ajmal. They did take out Mahela Jayawardene with the fourth ball of the day, but it was all Sri Lanka after that on a largely unresponsive pitch.The first over of the day began with immense promise for Pakistan. The second new ball was available at the start and Junaid had Sangakkara driving the first delivery straight to Abdur Rehman at point, only for it to go through his hands. Junaid had Jayawardene edging the second past the cordon and beat him with the third. The fourth moved back to hit the pad, and Pakistan reviewed successfully against umpire Ian Gould’s decision, replays showing the ball hitting the stumps near the top.The slight movement that had brought the wicket disappeared soon and the drop only made Sangakkara concentrate harder. Unless the ball was really full or short, he was not going for it. He was alert enough into his fifth session of batting to keep working singles and twos regularly. At the other end was a man whose batting average as captain gets more unbelievable by the day.Mathews calmly eased Junaid through extra cover to start off. Saeed Ajmal found plenty of slow turn and bounce at times, but his good length allowed Mathews to go right back and either hit him through off or work him to leg. A few did pop up off Mathews’ pad, but they could not snare the inside edge.Mohammad Talha lacked Junaid’s discipline and even as he beat the batsmen now and then, he also did not make them play much. Talha tried the short ball against Mathews after lunch, and did have him top-edging a pull, only for the ball to sail over long leg.Again, Rehman was used much less than Ajmal was, and again, he was less penetrative. Pakistan were also poor in the field, unable to cut out a few boundaries and singles. With no pressure exerted by either bowlers or fielders, Sri Lanka added 111 in 31 overs in the second session, and 84 in 23.1 after tea.Just a couple of overs before tea, Ajmal had Mathews edging a doosra, and Younis Khan, who had put down Sangakkara, did not miss this time at slip. Ajmal now toyed with Kithuruwan Vithanage, beating him with doosras and offbreaks. He ended the session by ripping one past Sangakkara’s outside edge, and consumed Vithanage, Niroshan Dickwella and Dilruwan Perera soon after the interval. Ajmal had waited 46.2 overs for a wicket, the longest he has ever had to; he would pick up five in just under 13 overs. It was his most expensive five-for, at 166 runs.Sangakkara was not done. He had a nervy moment or two on 199 before he punched Ajmal to point to bring up the double. With wickets falling around him, he started stepping out to loft the spinners for boundaries. He eventually charged Rehman and missed to be stumped off his 425th delivery. Dhammika Prasad connected a few blows to swell the lead to 82, a figure that could appear much larger for Pakistan if Sri Lanka are able to strike early on the fifth morning.

AB de Villiers twisted his wrists and used his bottom hand to hit the ball against the spin and through the covers. He stayed still and combined a powerful pull with a delicate whip to send another through midwicket. He dispatched a third over long-off. Only Luke Ronchi had matched him as the rest of New Zealand’s batsmen lacked the subtlety for a surface which allowed South Africa to, as Brendon McCullum put it, “kill us softly,” in the series opener.”There was a lack of craft from our batsmen and that can happen when you come out of playing in the nets versus game time,” McCullum said. “Let’s hope that develops over the next little while because that is an area where we have been very strong over the last 12 months. This time, the class of AB de Villiers and JP Duminy came through. They killed us softly. No matter how many different things we tried, they kept responding.”De Villiers and Duminy anchored a chase that could have gone awry for South Africa, especially after they found themselves at 97 for 4 in search of 231. Duminy survived an lbw appeal before he had scored a run. Had New Zealand got a wicket then, McCullum believed they would have “probably been on top,” but he acknowledged the real concerns were caused earlier.”Not enough runs,” McCullum said. “There’s a probably a little bit of unknown in the pitch and that showed in our batting.”This was the first time there was an international in October in New Zealand. It was also the first match New Zealand have played at Mount Maunganui, which had hosted only one other ODI previously. The pitch was slow and forcing the pace was hard. Now that they have an idea of conditions though, McCullum expects a more assured showing on Friday.”It definitely had a bit of tennis-ball bounce and slowed up as the game progressed,” he said. “As long as we know that, and we know that now, we can put a strategy in place.”They need look no further than Ronchi to discover the correct approach at Bay Oval, which he said came down to patience. “I felt pretty good,” Ronchi said. “There was a little period where Steyn and Morkel were bowling to us and we couldn’t quite hit the ball but outside of that, I felt pretty relaxed and in the situation. I just tried to bat for as long as possible and stay out there for as long as possible.”Ronchi lacked support, until Trent Boult dug in for a last-wicket stand of 74 runs, and a single run, which would have given him a maiden ODI century. But he said missing out on the milestone proved less of an annoyance than the inability to take the team to victory.”Most people would take a duck over losing a game. If you’re going to win and you get nothing, that’s awesome,” Ronchi said. “It would have been nice to make a few more if it meant we were going to win by an extra run. For any player, you want to make runs and start the summer off well. I don’t want it to be a one-off. I want to do it more and more for the team and win games.”McCullum expects the same from the rest of his players and, despite the defeat, was pleased with their willingness to compete. “Lesser teams would have rolled over a lot easier than what we did. We weren’t far away.”What that means is that New Zealand will not look to make too many changes as the series progresses, although McCullum indicated they will look to “get some game time into everyone.” He mentioned Mitchell McClenaghan as an option, especially because of the conditions”He could bring some reverse swing into play and can be quite dangerous as the game develops,” McCullum said, while also indicating James Neesham will keep his place at the top of the order. “I thought he looked pretty good today considering a lot of other people struggled to time the ball. He showed some good intent, some skills that he’s got against quick bowling. and that he is not out of his depth in that position.”Now he just needs to add the craft.

Longtime reader, first-time writer Ricky Ponting has joined ESPNcricinfo to provide his unique and piercing insights on world cricket for the Australian summer, the 2015 World Cup and the Ashes tour that follows.Ponting will pen columns, starting this week with his observations on Australia’s humbling results against Pakistan in the UAE, and also speak through video on issues around the game.”I’m really excited to be joining the team at ESPNcricinfo,” Ponting said. “I’ve been an avid consumer of the site for many years and now can’t wait to share my insights as a contributor, especially as the next 12 months will have so many gripping contests.”Sambit Bal, ESPNcricinfo’s editor-in-chief, is delighted to be able to bring Ponting’s thoughts on the game to the world over what shape as a highly eventful 12 months for the game.”With three marquee events – India v Australia, the World Cup and Ashes – coming back-to-back over the next 12 months, Ricky Ponting is a massive signing for us. Apart from being a legend of our game, and a World Cup and Ashes hero, he is also a keen and articulate student of the game. His insights and intimate knowledge of the contemporary game will be an invaluable addition to our coverage.”Ponting’s own career has coincided with that of ESPNcricinfo itself, for he made his first-class debut in the summer of 1992-93 when ideas for the site were first beginning to take shape, and his time as Australia’s pre-eminent batsmen and most successful captain coincided with its growth as the world’s leading digital cricket destination.Ponting has spoken frankly and often to us as a captain and a player, most recently last year. His addition to ESPNcricinfo’s team of writers and experts will only enhance the quality of our coverage.

The last time Indian openers added 50 in a Test away from home was in July 2011 at Lord’s. India have played 16 away Tests since then, they have tried five different combinations over the period, and there is no surprise they have won only one of those Tests. M Vijay has at least given them one option, but the other opener was a miserable failure in England this summer. The only consolation for Shikhar Dhawan was that Gautam Gambhir, his replacement for the last two Tests, fared even worse. That makes the Duleep Trophy semi-finals, beginning on Wednesday in Rohtak and Mohali, a golden opportunity for all the domestic openers around India.When Virender Sehwag and Gambhir were dropped from the Test side during the 2012-13 home season, it seemed like the doors were being shut. However, in India, especially if you are an opening batsman, you are almost never ruled out. There have been murmurs around that Sehwag is more than just a wild fancy when it comes to going to Australia at the end of the year. That also seems apparent from the fact that he is in the zonal side despite not having scored even a first-class fifty since his century in Ahmedabad in November 2012. He is 36, which is not beyond the sell-by date in Test cricket, and he is used to making comebacks for Australia tours without having set the domestic scene alight.Gambhir won’t count himself out despite four failures in England where he scored 25 runs. Simply because there aren’t many great options bringing the selectors’ door down by knocking on it. Gambhir, who is now the captain of North Zone with Harbhajan Singh out with a viral infection, will have to choose between Sehwag and Punjab’s Jiwanjot Singh as his opening partner. After a bumper first season where he scored more than 1000 first-class runs, 23-year-old Jiwanjot backed it up by averaging 40 in the 2013-14 season. The feeling, though, is that he isn’t ready yet for a Test role, but it will be interesting to see if he gets a go against Central Zone at his home ground in Mohali.In the other match, between South Zone and East Zone in Rohtak, Abhinav Mukund, who was part of India’s last 50-run opening away from home, gets a solid chance to force him way back into the reckoning. His prospective opening partners are Karnataka’s Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul. Rahul has been earmarked as a promising prospect by experts, he opened against Australia A in Australia, and was set to open against West Indies in a warm-up game before the Tests until they pulled out of the tour. Now he has been drafted into the South Zone side.With no home Tests this season, and with the Ranji Trophy starting after India begin their first Test in Australia, these are the last two first-class matches where selectors can have a look at the players before they decide on the three best choices for the opening slots in Australia. At the moment, only Vijay is a certainty. While Dhawan will look to re-earn the faith through runs in the ODIs against Sri Lanka, others have these two matches to make a statement.

Kenya are set to tour Pakistan next month for a series of five one-dayers against Pakistan A at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The tour will hold considerable significance for Pakistan, as the PCB looks to break their isolation as an international venue.Kenya will arrive in Lahore on December 11 and will play the five games between December 13 and 20, before leaving on 21st. “The entire series would consist of day matches, and shall be spread over 45 overs each”, Zakir Khan, chairman of the organising committee for the series and PCB’s director, international cricket, said.The PCB had invited Kenya, and the two boards discussed holding the series in November initially, before the tour was postponed as the PCB waited for government clearance. For Kenya, the series will help them prepare for the ICC World Cricket League Division Two event in January, in Windhoek, Namibia.Pakistan has been a no-go zone for major international cricket since gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009. Kenya are the second Associate country Pakistan have invited over in the last six months. Ireland had been invited earlier and had been willing to tour Pakistan in September, but the terrorist attacks in and around Karachi airport in June ruled out the proposition. The PCB had also asked Sri Lanka to come over earlier this year, without much result.

“Get him out please,” Faf du Plessis was thinking to himself as he gave the ball to 19-year old Kagiso Rabada to take on Chris Gayle. And the youngster tried.With the fourth delivery he bowled, Rabada was searching for the bouncer but put a little too much behind it and ended up sending the ball flying over Gayle, over wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk and over the rope for four. Rabada tried to correct with his next ball but went too full. Gayle connected. Six. Then he opted for a good length. Gayle connected again. Six again. And again, and again, and again.From Rabada’s first two overs, Gayle took 26 runs and began to break the back of the West Indies chase. Instead of Rabada following Gayle with the ball, the opposite was happening. The attempted yorker became a low full toss, when Gayle moved to the leg side and Rabada tried to cramp him, he only ended up allowing Gayle the room needed to flay over long-off and when Rabada straightened his line, Gayle played down leg.It was, as du Plessis implied, Rabada’s night to be taught a lesson. “Chris is very versatile in the areas he scores. He hasn’t just got one shot. He hits different boundaries off different balls and it’s difficult to stop him,” du Plessis said. “He offers you very little. The world’s most dangerous T20 player for a reason. He usually picks on one guy on the night and that’s it. In the IPL, he usually goes after a medium-paced bowler or a spinner so I was surprised he took on a quick.”So was Rabada targeted because he was the quickest of the South African bowlers, the least experienced or the one Gayle knew best? Du Plessis tried to find out after the match. “I thought you would look after your Lions mate,” du Plessis said to Gayle afterwards. There was an ever-it ready response: “He tried to hit my head off so my eyes weren’t open,” Gayle retorted.Gayle stuck to his guns afterwards too. “He picked on me first. He tried to knock my head off,” he said. But there were other reasons too. “He is inexperienced but has got a lot of pace so I wanted to put him on the back foot. This is a learning process for him. He is very young but he is a strong individual and he will be a quality fast bowler for South Africa in the future.”The near future is where du Plessis’ is directing his more immediate concerns and they centre on how to get Gayle out. “He is hesitant at the beginning of his innings so you can get him there,” du Plessis said. And then, South Africa may be able to walk right through West Indies, according du Plessis. “Chris won the match on his own for them. If we did that I would be disappointed in our batting unit,” du Plessis said.But Gayle did not think there was any reason to be worried about the four wickets that fell for 17 runs at the end of West Indies’ chase. “We were just giving the fans something to cheer about. I wasn’t worried at all. I knew we would get there in the end.”They did and now Gayle wants to see them finish the job in Johannesburg. “Sometimes when we win a game like this then we are more lackadaisical and lose the next one. It will be nice to have a clean sheet by going up two-nil,” he said. It will be even nicer to do it at the Wanderers, where the ball will travel a lot faster. “I hope it doesn’t fly at my head there as well,” Gayle joked. Rabada would have been listening.

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said that their World Cup preparation has amounted to nothing after going down to Ireland by four wickets in Sydney on Thursday. He questioned the players’ approach towards the practice matches, having lost all four since arriving in Australia on January 26.Mashrafe called his side “inconsistent” and felt that some players did not take the matches seriously enough to bring positive results. He believed that they had enough time to become fitter and mentally tuned to what lies ahead in the main event.”In terms of results, we are on zero,” Mashrafe said. “We were practising to get acclimatised here but we haven’t been able to show our level of preparation. We couldn’t win despite playing well against Pakistan. We did very badly against Ireland. We are very inconsistent. I felt that though we trained very carefully and everyone got enough information about the sort of wicket they would face, but we haven’t executed properly.The BCB had arranged for a two-week training camp in Brisbane for adaptating to the conditions early. The camp included two practice matches against Cricket Australia XI on February 3 and 5, both of which Bangladesh lost. They followed that by by losing both their warm-up matches in Sydney, to Pakistan and Ireland.Bangladesh batted first in all four matches but could not bat out the 50 overs and did not cross the 250-run mark in any of the games. While there were at least half-centuries in the first three games, there were none against Ireland, who bowled them out for 189 runs.”I can’t sit here and say that our morale isn’t shaken. To be honest, if we believe in our purpose, we can do good things,” Mashrafe said. “But who amongst us took these two practice matches seriously is my real concern. Even if they took it seriously, they couldn’t execute the plans. If we perform in this vein, it will definitely have an impact in the important matches up ahead. I think we will be better prepared mentally and physically in the main matches. We have five-six days ahead of us. We can’t change our skills during this short time but we have to be mentally and physically ready.”Mashrafe said that the defeats don’t bode well for the team but could turn into motivation if taken in the right spirit. He said that their batting performance against Pakistan pleased him, but the one against Ireland showed that the team is not mentally geared up.”It would have been much better had we won any one of the practice matches,” he said. “It is not a good sign for our team, but I believe that we can turn around. I hope these defeats have hurt everyone in the team. It should. In which case, good results are a matter of time.”I was personally quite happy that we had made 240-odd against Pakistan’s bowling attack. We have the ability, no doubt about it. But we haven’t been able to prepare mentally. If we can’t settle down mentally, we will suffer badly.”Bangladesh’s preparations ahead of the World Cup have been up for debate ever since it was decided that they would not play any international cricket after wrapping up the 5-0 ODI series win over Zimbabwe on December 1. Apart from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, all the other World Cup teams played at least two ODIs during this period. Many players, and the coach Chandika Hathurusingha, said that the scheduling would work for the team.When asked what the team management was particularly looking for in the practice matches, Mashrafe replied that it was to gauge how well the newcomers have adapted to Australian conditions during this short time. He maintained that regular players will bat or bowl in their customary roles, though before selecting the team for the Afghanistan game on February 18, he would like to have a closer look at the Manuka Oval pitch.”The specific view point was to see how everyone has progressed,” he said. “We have a lot of new players, so we had to see how they would cope in these conditions. Taskin [Ahmed] and Al-Amin [Hossain] took the new ball today because they may be required to bowl that early in some stage of the tournament. We shuffled the batting order too, to see how a batsman would react to different situations.”Those who have regularly played in a certain position or role will continue to do so. Right combination is important to know which playing XI will take the field in a certain match. But we can’t say anything without seeing the wicket. We heard that it will be flat in Canberra. We are seeing different wickets in Brisbane and here in Sydney.”