Shannon Gabriel

Shannon Gabriel, a muscular tall fast bowler emerging from the Caribbean shores made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in 2010 and quickly went onto establish himself as an integral part of their pace bowling cartel. His first moment of recognition came in the same year when he was one of the 15 players selected at the Sagicor West Indies Cricket High-Performance Centre which was founded by the West Indies Cricket Board to take care of the quality of young Windies players from ages between 19 to 27. 

Gabriel was quite impressive in the 2010/11 first-class season for Trinidad and Tobago bagging 33 wickets. His best performance came in a match against the Combined Campuses and Colleges where he finished with 7 wickets. On the back of some impressive performances in the first-class circuit, Gabriel was included in the Trinidad and Tobago squad for the 2011 Champions League T20. His first national call-up came in 2012 when was picked for the England tour. The Trinidadian went onto make his Test debut against England at Lord’s in May 2012 but didn’t manage to make a mark in his debut encounter. He was subsequently sent back home after he complained of back spasms. 

During the tour of Zimbabwe in 2012/13, Gabriel bagged 6 wickets in a couple of matches and was subsequently named in the Windies squad for the tour of India in 2013. He was part of the playing XI in only the Mumbai Test where he finished with just a solitary wicket under his belt. Despite bowling his heart out, Gabriel’s career never really took off after he failed to bowl consistent lines and lengths for a long period of time. Meanwhile his limited-overs career never really took off. 

After toiling so hard in the international circuit, Gabriel’s career slowly started taking the upward curve when he bagged his maiden five-wicket haul against Pakistan in 2016 at Abu Dhabi. On unresponsive UAE pitches, the seamer bowled his heart out and played a pivotal role in the West Indies winning a Test match against Pakistan in Sharjah. 

Gabriel’s international grasp just kept rising as he bagged 9/92 in a famous Test victory against Pakistan at Bridgetown. Yet again his exceptional bowling figures of 6 wickets helped West Indies register a sensational victory against England at Leeds. In the coming years, the performance just kept improving. Post the COVID-19 break, Gabriel was again in the thick of things as he played an instrumental role as the Windies defeated England in the opening Test. He bagged 9 wickets in the match as the Windies registered a historic victory. Gabriel has now established himself as the spearhead of the Windies pace attack and given the sort of form he has been in of late, he should continue shouldering the responsibility for some more time.