The Hindu : W. Indies, Australia favour fast bowlers for third Test

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 01, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

W. Indies, Australia favour fast bowlers for third Test

BRIDGETOWN (Barbados) APRIL 30. Both Australia and the West Indies are set to pick four fast bowlers for their attacks in their third Test in Barbados on Thursday, officials said on Tuesday.

Australian captain Steve Waugh said his leading fast bowler Glenn McGrath would be back on the team, after having missed the first two Tests, but Waugh acknowledged McGrath was not in his best form.

``He's a fair way behind where he would like to be,'' Waugh said after the team's three-day match against the University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor's XI team ended on Monday with Australian victory by six wickets. The warm-up was McGrath's first since Australia's victory over India in the March 23 World Cup final in Johannesburg.

Waugh said McGrath, who has taken 422 wickets in 91 Tests, would be given more bowling than usual in the practice sessions leading up to the third Test.

The three fast bowlers who played for Australia in the first two Tests — Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Andy Bichel — would keep their places on the team, which won its second Test in Port-of-Spain by 118 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series.

The West Indies also named four fast bowlers to its squad of 14, announced last week, and all are likely to make the final 11 following the widely criticised selection of only three frontline bowlers in the second Test.

Jermaine Lawson, the 21-year-old Jamaican who is the fastest West Indian bowler, has recovered from chicken pox that kept him from playing the second Test.

Barbadian Tino Best, also 21, was selected for the squad for the first time in Port-of-Spain, but omitted from the starting 11. He is rated as fast as Lawson, and seems certain to make his Test debut before his home crowd.

The Kensington Oval pitch in Barbados is expected to be a little faster with more bounce.

The West Indies is strengthened by the return of two more players. Left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a veteran of 64 Tests who scored Test cricket's third fastest hundred in the first Test, and wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, 48 Tests, both missed the second Test.

The teams:

West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Tino Best, Jermaine Lawson, Carlton Baugh, Omari Banks.

Australia (expected): Steve Waugh (captain), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehmann, Adam Gilchrist, Andy Bichel, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill, Glenn McGrath.

Umpires: David Shepherd (England), Srinivasa Venkatraghavan (India). — AP

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