The national cricket selectors have made one change to the surging Guyana Jaguars 13-man squad for their third round encounter against second place Leeward Islands Hurricanes which begins Thursday at Warner Park, St Kitts.
Akshaya Persaud, who emerged as the leading run scorer in the 2017 Jaguars three – day Franchise League after scoring 523 runs including two centuries with his highest score of 151, makes way for 43- year-old Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Persaud, perhaps, can consider himself unlucky to be dropped without being given an opportunity while Test discard, Rajendra Chandrika who endured a couple of failures, has been retained.
The management, however, will have a lot to consider, regarding the final XI.
Where the senior Chanderpaul slots in will be one of the many considerations since it is unlikely that he will perform 12th man duties.
The likely solution may be to drop Chandrika and have Chandrapaul Hemraj, who is in good form open the batting to accommodate the elder statesman.
That, however, begs the question: why retain Chandrika to carry the drinks while on the other hand omitting young Persaud who hasn’t played a game and who would obviously gain from the experience?
Other questions surround the dodgy form of skipper Leon Johnson which also compounds the issue since it is also highly unlikely that he too will be dropped.
Dropping Hemraj, which is not out the question, may seem harsh on the young man who has done all he can to keep his place.
Jaguars, nevertheless who are atop the points table with 40 points after crushing the Scorpions and simmering the Hurricanes, would much rather that kind of a headache rather than the situation being somewhat different.
The South Americans, the three-time defending champions, have been seeing good returns from the youngsters in the squad with the likes of Hemraj, who has two fifties, coming to the party while major contributions have also come from wicketkeeper/ batsman Anthony Bramble, who missed out on a century in the last round and 19 – year old all-rounders Keemo Paul and Sherfane Rutherford who have been doing the business with both bat and ball.
Vishaul `Cheesy’ Singh also seems to be in good nick after his second round century with Veerasammy Permaul continuing to benefit from the lack of temperament and capacity to play spin, shown by the region’s batsmen as he continues to cause worry.
Johnson, Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Chandrika, if he plays, are the men in need of runs while the rest of the bowling unit in Keon Joseph and Romario Shepherd have been doing their bit to support Permaul, Paul and Rutherford.
Jaguars Squad: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Rajendra Chandrika, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Leon Johnson (captain), Keemo Paul, Anthony Bramble+, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Romario Shepherd, Sherfane Rutherford, Keon Joseph, Vishaul Singh and Shivnarine Chanderpaul
