Windies stick with same squad for New Zealand tour

Port of Spain, Nov 19 (IANS/CMC) The West Indies announced a 15-man squad to play a three-Test series in New Zealand next month with no changes from tghe team that suffered two humiliating Test defeats by India this month.

Selectors have stuck with the same side which lost to India in back-to-back Tests inside three days by an innings and 51 runs and an innings and 126 runs.

The poor performances in India sparked a fresh call from former Windies fast bowler Michael Holding for a change in the captaincy as well as calls in some quarters for a shake-up in the squad and inclusion of mystery spinner Sunil Narine.

Darren Sammy, who scored 25 runs over four innings and bowled 21 wicket-less overs in the series, continues to captain the side.

“He should not be in the team. If Darren Sammy is going to be captaining the West Indies team or playing for West Indies, he should be playing in the shorter forms of the game — 50 or 20 overs is fine. The type of slogging that he tries in 50 and 20 overs, he tries the same in Tests which doesn’t work,” said Holding.

“He bats the same way every time. His bowling is mediocre. If you are going to have Darren Sammy as an all-rounder, he has got to take more wickets and also has to be making more runs.”

Only two West Indian batsmen managed to aggregate more than 100 runs in the series and the only bowler who had success was off-spinner Shane Shillingford with 11 wickets. No other West Indies bowler picked up more than two wickets.

The first Test against New Zealand starts Dec 3 in Dunedin. Currently at No. 6 in the Test rankings, the West Indies will slip a rung lower, should they lose 0-2 or worse.

The West Indies squad for the tour of New Zealand: Darren Sammy (Captain), Denesh Ramdin (wicketkeeper and vice-captain), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sheldon Cottrell, Narsingh Deonarine, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Veersammy Permaul, Kieron Powell, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford, Chadwick Walton (wicketkeeper).

–IANS/CMC

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