Gabriel Has Gotten Better But Still Needs To Improve

Quote:He has been, without a doubt, Sri Lanka’s main worry. The others they could cope with reasonably well, but Roach has been another matter altogether, not only threatening to take their wickets but there is the danger of physical harm as well.

Gabriel has generally kept a fuller length, but that does not mean he has totally neglected the short, rising delivery. In the first Test, Angelo Mathews suffered a fearful hit to his helmet. In the second Dhananjaya de Silva was struck on his elbow, a blow which must have been doubly painful since the ball ricocheted on to his stumps.

The ball which saw captain Dinesh Chandimal begin his trek to the pavilion after fending to gully, was also particularly vicious, though the batsman had to be recalled when replays revealed the bowler had overstepped by a huge margin. This has been a long-running problem Gabriel and the West Indies coaching staff has to fix.

There is no doubt Gabriel has improved immensely, but he has some distance still to go. The pitches in Trinidad and St Lucia offered some help: there was some life in both surfaces, some seam movement, and a bit of uneven bounce as the matches wore on. He will soon enough meet up on other surfaces that will offer him nothing. At some point he will be armed with the kookaburra, which is not as helpful as the Dukes that is used in the Caribbean and in England.