One of the most effective batsmen from the Caribbean after Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had an illustrious career and has been a thorn in many of the team’s plans. However, it looks likely that second best career in West Indian cricket is about to end.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is 40 now, is still ready to play for his nation but was dropped out of the 12-men squad practicing for the 2 test matches against Australia later in the year. Though Chanderpaul was a prolific run getter, the recent series against England was not his best and this made him loose his place in the squad.
This means that the 40 year old’s 21-year old career with 11,867 test runs in 164 test matches with an impressive average of 51.37. He also smashed 30 test centuries and this tally runs took him just 86 runs short of the most illustrious career in the history of the nation, Brian Lara.
Clive Lloyd, the West Indies selector, who himself played till the age of 40 recognized that the move was really hard but that the fact that he could only score 96 runs in the series against England means that it was necessary. He added that they will take this chance to give the young players a chance to show themselves at the biggest stage.
With the first team to play against the champions to be announced on Friday, the team is scheduled to practice all through-out the week at Barbados. The series will begin on the 3rd of June in Dominica. The second test will be played in Jamaica.
West Indies training squad
Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Veerasammy Permaul, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor