“Look, everything is a process. When I took on this job, when I look at the first three Test series we had: Australia here in difficult conditions, West Indies in India, West Indies in New Zealand. Phew! That was three really challenging ones,” Sammy said ahead of the first Test against Pakistan, starting on Saturday at Tarouba’s Brian Lara Stadium, the venue hosting a Test for the first time. “And also the players would have had to get the opportunities to finetune the team and have them gel well together.
“So, for me, my process has always been simple: understand what the direction we want to go, with my conversations with the director, conversations with the captain and the players, and how we go about doing it. So if you see me looking calm all the time, it’s because I understand what we as a group are trying to do and not the noise from the outside.”
“With the injury to Jangoo, it brings another ask of probably Shai Hope to take on the mantle of the gloves again,” Sammy said. “I’m speaking to him. I’m trying to ask him for a couple more favours, because you’ve got to also consider his workload, keeping in mind the other two formats and asking him to score some real runs. It’s a conversation we’ll have.
“I think knowing Shai, it will come out on the positive end of things for him taking up the gloves. But it’s a conversation myself, Joshua Da Silva, Amir Jangoo have had about the way forward.
“[Jangoo] is still available. Like I said, Dr [Dennis] Byam [the physiotherapist] has a way of keeping people on the park. So hopefully… Jangoo missed out the last game in the ODI series, but he’s batting out there in the nets. So hopefully he’s still available for selection.”
“Yes, Joshua Bishop has been really knocking at the doors every season. And obviously with the venues that we have here now – the second Test is in Port of Spain – it brings an opportunity for us to probably even play two genuine spinners and Roston [Chase] as the captain as well,” Sammy said. “And Joshua Bishop’s contribution and performances brings him and forces his way into the Test team.
“But again, moving forward, [the plan] is to try to create or have that pool of players where if one person is missing, the role doesn’t change. Somebody else could come in and fill up that role.”
“We just lost a great one in Sir Garry. What he contributed to the Test game… because of him, we got so many followers, so many lovers of cricket. He contributed so much to that,” Sammy said. “So throughout this series, we’ll be playing, trying to honour his legacy and trying to put performances that he would be proud of.”
