The Carribean side was sailing smooth and appearing dominant in the year of ICC Cricket World Cup as they were hot favourites to whitewash England in the 3 Test matches of the full-fledged series comprising of 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is.

The last thing, the Carribean side had on their wishlist were any controversies post the dominant victories over the visitors in Barbados & Antigua.

Kraigg Braithwaite hosted Joe Root’s men in the last red ball encounter at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium located at Gros Islet in St Lucia. Opting to bowl first, Braithwaite aimed to repeat the feat from their last outing where the visitors had to face one of their biggest defeats in Test cricket by 10 wickets.

However, England seemed to have finished their incomplete homework and were eager to start their limited overs campaign on a winning note. A different approach was seen by the English middle order in both the innings after the opening pair failed to create much of an impact on the pace trio of the Carribean side. With useful contributions from Jos Butler & Ben Stokes, England managed to cross the average 1st innings score on the ground.

Not able to understand the pace and length of the English pacers, Windies innings was wrapped up for a mere 154 runs with Stuart Broad and Mark Wood bagging a 5 wicket haul each. The scenario was witnessed for the 3rd time in 2019 wherein the bowling partnership seemed to have demolished the opponents’ batting order.

During the third day of the test, Gabriel was seen passing remarks directed towards the England captain, Joe Root, which was later revealed by ICC as the case of breaching the code of conduct. According to Article 2.13; Personal abuse of a player, Player support personnel, Umpire or match referee during an international match is liable to the penalty as effective from 30 September 2018. The pacer had to face serious implications for his behaviour from the ICC as the latter imposed a ban of 4 Odis and penalty of 75% of his match fees.

Previously, Gabriel has been deemed to be guilty for similar incidents twice; in the Jamaica test where WI hosted Pakistan in April 2017 and against Bangladesh in the Chittagong Test in November 2018. Cricket West Indies, is likely to face a huge loss as Gabriel misses the golden opportunity to play limited overs game against England, which was considered to be the turning point as the roadmap for the Island nation for the upcoming major tournament.

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