Shannon Gabriel

A muscular, fast 22-year old Shannon Gabriel made his debut for Trinidad & Tobago in 2010 and quickly became an integral part of their pace attack. He first came to notice when he was picked up for a stint at the Sagicor West Indies Cricket High Performance Centre, founded by the West Indies Cricket Board to improve the quality of young cricketers between the ages of 19 to 27. Gabriel was one of the 15 players selected for that venture.

Gabriel played 14 first class matches for T&T in the 2010/2011 season picking up 33 wickets. His best performance in the season came in a match against Combined Campuses and Colleges, where he bagged 7 wickets. His solid outings in the domestic circuit won him a place in the squad for the 2011 Champions League T20. He was later named in West Indies’ Test squad for the England tour in 2012. He made his Test match debut against England at Lords in May 2012. However, he was unimpressive in that match and was sent home after complaining of back trouble.

During the Zimbabwe tour of West Indies in 2012/2013, he scalped 6 wickets in 2 matches. He was then named in West Indies squad to India in November 2013. However, he was selected only for the second Test at Mumbai, in which was listless and managed to get just one wicket.

Despite putting in a lot of effort, Gabriel never managed to look really threatening for a long period of time in his Test career. His career in whites never took off either as consistent lines and lengths were never his forte.

But then finally things fell in place for him as he picked up his maiden fifer against Pakistan in 2016 at Abu Dhabi. On docile tracks in the UAE, the pacer bowled his heart out and Windies also managed to win a Test at Sharjah in the three-match series.

Year 2017 was Gabriel's best year as he scalped 9 for 92 at Bridgetown to set up a famous Test win for Windies against Pakistan. And then 6-fer against England ensured that Windies managed a heist at Leeds. The Trinidadian was finally the leader of the pack and was now an indispensable part of the team.