Tagenarine Chanderpaul, the son of West Indies legend Shivnarine, looks set to make his long-awaited Test debut against Australia this week following a stellar run of form in red-ball cricket.
The 26-year-old is the only uncapped member of the West Indies’ 15-player squad for the Frank-Worrell Trophy, which gets underway at Perth Stadium on Wednesday.
Since making his first-class debut in 2013, Chanderpaul has averaged 35.55 with the bat in 51 matches, but his numbers this year have been nothing short of remarkable.
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In 2022, the left-hander boasts an average of 85.77 in first-class cricket, his most recent scores being 140*, 23*, 184, 25, 49, 109*, 119 and 56.
He was the second-highest run-scorer in the West Indies Championship this year, only sitting behind West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite.
Chanderpaul and Brathwaite look destined to open the batting together for the first time at Perth Stadium this week, tasked with combating Australia’s world-class pace attack.
“He has what it takes to do well at the highest level,” national selector and former West Indies opener Desmond Hayes said of Chanderpaul last month.
“I think what you have to take into consideration too is with Tage, a young man, he’s got a very good technique to the new ball.
“He leaves alone very well. When you go to places like Australia, you don’t want to see the No. 3 batsman coming in too early or the number four. So I think he and Kraigg would definitely complement each other.”
Chanderpaul, who represented the West Indies at the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, looks set to replace incumbent opener John Campbell, who last month copped a four-year ban for an anti-doping violation.
Last week, Chanderpaul compiled a gritty 119 against the Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, surviving 293 deliveries at the crease against a bowling attack that featured three international cricketers.
It comes after he scored an unbeaten 109 for West Indies A against Bangladesh A in August, pushing his case for higher honours.
“He has a bright future for West Indies,” Brathwaite told reporters in Canberra last week.
“Obviously he is a guy who can spend a lot of time at the crease. He just has to do the same things he has done in first-class cricket for Guyana.”
Chanderpaul’s father played 164 Tests for the West Indies between 1994 and 2015, scoring 30 centuries and 66 fifties.
In 2017, Tagenarine and Shivnarine both struck half-centuries in the same first-class game for Guyana, becoming the first father-son duo to achieve the feat since 1931.
It hasn’t taken long for pundits to start comparing their batting actions – although Shivnarine undeniably has a more exaggerated front-facing stance, the similarities are glaring.
“He’s been knocking at the door since before Covid,” Shivnarine said of his son recently.
“Knowing the attack Australia has — these guys are relentless — if he can come here and do well, it will be a start to his career.
“I try to help him sometimes but he’s a little bent in his ways. He’ll seek me out for some help but then there’s a lot of times, like any kid, when you message him but he doesn’t message back. Unless he wants something.”
The West Indies are unbeaten in Tests this year but have not defeated Australia in the five-day format since 2003 – their most recent Test victory on Australian soil came in 1997, when Chanderpaul was still in diapers.
However, Brathwaite is not focusing on past results.
“Obviously, past history shows it’s a long time since getting wins in Australia and stuff, but we are focusing on our own,” he said earlier this month.
“We have ten days of Test cricket, and we want to be playing good, solid ten days of Test cricket.
“What is important is that we know the Australia team has obviously been selected; we know the bowlers we’re going to play against, we know the batsmen.
“The only thing is from now is just to create our plan, in terms of the mindset – how we want to go about playing against these guys? So we use these two games to do just that.”
The first Test between Australia and the West Indies gets underway at Perth Stadium on Wednesday, with the opening ball scheduled for 1.20pm AEDT.
