JAMIE PANDARAM, Sydney Morning Herald: “Kemar Roach declared after play on day one that the West Indies were here not just to play cricket, they were here to win. There was little evidence of either at the Gabba yesterday as Australia’s pace pack tore apart a top order made up of sardine bone stability.”.
CHLOE SALTAU, Melbourne Age: “Though the West Indies batting list lacked class and desperately missed the experience of injured Ramnaresh Sarwan at No.3, the Australian bowlers hunted as a pack, just as they did in South Africa in the autumn and just as Siddle has forecast they would for years to come.”
MALCOLM CONN, The Australian: “Have the West Indies really sent their full-strength team to Australia? Surely the real team must be still on strike, because if this is the best the combined might of the Caribbean can muster, then Test cricket is in terminal decline. Even allowing for the back injury that has ruled out the experienced Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indian batting late on the second day was a rabble.”
MIKE COWARD, The Australian: “For someone who believes Test cricket is doomed, Chris Gayle does everything in his power to ensure its future prosperity. And more power to him for that. He simply demands to be watched but, as so often happens, the Gayle force was followed by a low and this young, vulnerable West Indian team was rudely exposed.”
BEN DORRIES, Herald-Sun, Melbourne: “It was hard to work out which was in more trouble – the West Indies or Test cricket. On a day where there were 10 empty bays at the Gabba, the once proud Calypso kings hoisted the white flag and signalled the death knell for this one-sided summer.”
