Should the West Indies beat Australia in the third and final Test in Perth to level the series 1-1, captain Chris Gayle contends “they should give us a trophy”.
Given injuries that appeared certain to eliminate key batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Adrian Barath from the match that started last night (east Caribbean time), the trophy for what would be the West Indies’ first victory in Australia since 1997 would have to be solid gold.
“Getting a one-all result, that would be great, it would be fantastic,” Gayle said.
“Australia will still hold the (Frank Worrell) trophy, but if it does happen, they should give us a trophy. I think we’ll actually deserve it if we win this Test match. We’re looking forward to it and if that happens they should hand it to us.”
But the captain acknowledged yesterday that the situation with Chanderpaul and Barath was “not looking too good”.
“It’s not too good for our batting…but the game has to go on,” Gayle said. “We’ve lost two key players (and) it would have been nice to have them around. That’s not the case but we’re still ready for it, we’re up for it.” Chanderpaul averages 48.7 in his 122 Tests and is the West Indies’ second highest scorer in Tests behind Brian Lara with 8,669 runs.
He jarred his right hand in the ground fielding in the drawn second Test in Adelaide and it remains so tender that he has not been able to bat at practice since. According to Gayle, Barath, the 19-year-old opener who scored a dazzling 104 on debut in the innings loss in the first Test in Brisbane, “kind of pulled a hamstring” in Adelaide.
But Gayle was philosophical about the setbacks.
“It’s cricket, anything can happen on any given day,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what sort of team you have out there, they can still crumble, once you get it right, definitely we can put a bit of pressure on them and we’ll see what happens when the pressure is out there.”‘
Travis Dowlin and Narsingh Deonarine are the reserve batsmen who would come in, Dowlin for Barath to open with Gayle, Deonarine for fellow left-hander Chanderpaul at No.4.
Belatedly given an opportunity at the highest level in the home series against Bangladesh in July after the leading players withdrew over a contracts dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), 32-year-old Dowlin scored 49 and 95 in his second Test.
Drafted in to bat No.3 in the first Test in Brisbane when Ramnaresh Sarwan was injured, he was second in and last out for the first innings top score 62.
Deonarine, 26, played the last of his four Tests against Sri Lanka in Kandy in July 2005. In his only match on what is his first tour of Australia he scored 26 and 14 against Queensland, also picking up a wicket with his useful off-spin.
Gayle said his aim was for “a good start on the first day and to take it from there”. “We still have to step up and everyone has to play a part,” he said. “It can’t be one individual to go out there and produce, it takes everyone to go out there and have a good five days of cricket, and then we can come out victorious.”
Australia were also stricken with late injuries although none as potentially damaging as those to Chanderpaul and Barath.
Fast bowler Peter Siddle’s strained hamstring finally ruled him out after a fitness Test yesterday and off-spinner Nathan Hauritz was in doubt after he was hit on his right bowling hand at practice.
Clint McKay, the 28-year-old Victorian who was in the squad but not required for the second Test, will make his Test debut as Siddle’s replacement.
In a surprise move, 20-year-old New South Wales all-rounder Steve Smith, an aggressive lower-order batsman and leg-spin bowler, was chosen as back-up for Hauritz in spite of a first-class bowling average of 75.18 for his 11 first-class wickets. (TC).
