How is Sammy the weak link when he has 46 wickets @ 29.28 with an economy of 2.7 in 16 tests? His career stats are better than all the names mentioned.
As captain he has 19 wickets at 31.47, economy of 2.34
For test cricket Sammy is not better than option than any of Roach, Taylor, Edwards, Rampaul, when considering the best make-up. So lets not delude ourselves to think otherwise.
If the whole fiasco with Gayle and the WICB & coach Gibson didn't start during that 2010 tour to SRI, Sammy would never be playing ahead of any of those players in the test side. He is simply playing because he is the default skipper and thus is keeping out a better fast-bowler.
Yes you can argue he bowled well vs India and his stats look good blah blah blah. But simple rebuttal to that is if a bowler of his limited ability can manage to take wickets vs IND - imagine what a more aggressive and attacking bowler like Taylor or Roach could have done.
And besides, compare the averages Edwards, Rampaul and Roach in the matches under Sammy compared to their career averages. (Taylor hasn't played under Sammy yet).
Edwards: 19 wickets @ 20 in 3 matches, economy 3.32
Rampaul: 21 wickets @ 22.8 in 5 matches, economy 2.60
Roach: 14 wickets @30.28 in 5 matches, economy 3.09
Clearly he's been bringing the best out of them.
I have seen no evidence that Sammy has been bringing out the best in those three bowlers. AFAIS it is just convenient that their good form has coincided with Sammy's captaincy.
Before the tests vs IND, Edwards had not played internationally since mid 2009. He had barely come back into Windies domestic cricket during the 2010/11 4-day season in January of this year for Barbados.
The windies played him in a hastily arranged practise game before the 1st test vs Pakistan in Guyana, but then they didn't play him the test. Afterwards they didn't select him for any of the ODIs/T20 vs IND before the 1st test vs IND in Jamaica. So basically you had a situation where the WI selection threw him into a test series against the then # 1 team in the world with no international cricket behind him. It didn't backfire because Edwards himself lifted his game - nothing to do with Sammy.
Same thing goes for Rampaul, his game in all formats has just lifted since he took that 5 wicket-haul vs India in the world-cup. If anyone can be credited with Rampaul's rise is his country captain Darren Ganga.
Roach to a degree wasn't bowling as lethal as he did during the windies home season, compared to when he broke Ponting's hand in AUS 09/10 - likely a simple case of 21 year old feeling tired after carrying the bowling attack for 2 years on his own in the absence of Taylor & Edwards. So its a lazy statistical conclusion to deduce that Sammy was bringing out the best him, especially when Sammy was keeping him out of the team during those three (3) tests vs IND.
