When Shannon Gabriel takes to the field tonight in the second Test between West Indies and New Zealand he will become the 35th West Indian to play a half century of Test matches.
Bowler Gabriel is currently ranked 19th in the Test ratings and third among West Indians behind Jason Holder and Kemar Roach at fifth and 16th respectively. During a recent interview, the 32-year-old Trinidadian expressed his perspective of reaching that milestone.
“If someone had told me 10 years ago Shannon you would play 50 Tests for the West Indies I would want to know if they are smoking or on some type of drugs or something so it’s a good opportunity for me, it is a blessing so I just want to say thank God and my family and friends who have supported me throughout my career thus far and hopefully I can go on to much better and greater things,” he said.
Gabriel’s career, though hurdled by injuries, sees him sitting at 14th on the list of all-time Test wicket takers for the Caribbean side with 147 scalps including three wickets in the first Test against the Kiwis.
Though West Indies lost that match by an innings and 134 runs, Gabriel, who is expected to lead the bowling attack in the absence of Roach, believes it is not necessary to dwell on the past but focus on what is ahead.
“I think we need to learn from our mistakes. What happened in the last game we have to put that behind, that is the past and not really focus on that too much and just look forward to the future and stick to our basics and concentrate on what we have to do as a team together and work together… We know where our mistakes were, we know where we fell down in the last game so we are just trying to keep it simple as possible and to go out there and play our best cricket, he stated.”
Gabriel, who is three wickets short of 150 wickets believes that the difference in the ball and the quality of New Zealand’s side makes bowling in the country difficult.
“I think generally the wickets are good I think the ball is a bit different, we are accustomed to using Duke ball back home and most places we go play Duke ball so that makes it a bit tougher in terms of less side way movement and stuff like that but beside from that I think new Zealand is a good team and they are always ready for the fight,” he explained.
