Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been left out of the 14-men West Indies Test squad for the two-match Test series against Australia which starts from June 3. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced the team for the upcoming series on Saturday.
Chanderpaul's form slump has led to his axing from the West Indian side. He could not touch the double digits for more than four times in his last 20 innings that he has played. Also, he has scored only one half century in those 10 innings. During the Test series against England last year, he could only manage to score 92 runs in three Test matches at a poor average of 15.33.
Chanderpaul, who has already played 164 Test matches, is 84 runs behind the great Brian Lara's record for the highest run scorer for West Indies in the longest format of the game.
Chief selector Clive Lloyd and head coach Phil Simmons were criticised for not including the veteran in the training squad earlier this month. Lara was not happy with the way board was dealing with this veteran's career. Even Chanderpaul was not happy as he was not picked for the training squad ahead of the Test series against Australia.
However, Simmons and Lloyd defended their decision saying that there is no space for sentiment as they wanted to pick the best available players who could go up against the best Test playing nation in the world.
Meanwhile, the WICB has picked up two uncapped players for the upcoming series. They are Shane Dorwich who scored a couple of half-centuries already against the visitors in the warm up game and the other player is Rajindra Chandrika.
Wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin will lead the West Indies squad.
The first Test will be played in Dominica from June 3, followed by the second match in Jamaica which is scheduled to start on June 11.
Here is the full squad of West Indies for the series against Australia:
Denesh Ramdin (C & wk), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Rajindra Chandrika, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Veerasammy Permaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor.
