ROSEAU–Un­capped Shane Dowrich and Ra­jin­dra Chan­dri­ka were poised for Test de­buts af­ter they were named yes­ter­day in a 14-man West In­dies squad to face Aus­tralia in the open­ing Test of the two-match se­ries start­ing next week.Both bats­men shone dur­ing the re­cent three-day game against the Aussies which fin­ished Fri­day, gath­er­ing half-cen­turies for the West In­dies Pres­i­dent's XI at the Vi­vian Richards Crick­et Sta­di­um in An­tigua.

The 23-year-old Bar­ba­di­an Dowrich, a wick­et­keep­er/ bats­man was most im­pres­sive with two half-cen­turies in the con­test.He had a break­through year in the WICB Pro­fes­sion­al Crick­et League, chalk­ing up 615 runs at an av­er­age of 46, with two cen­turies.Chan­dri­ka, mean­while, gath­ered 74 in the first in­nings for Pres­i­dent's XI, one of five half-cen­turies, with Ros­ton Chase, Ja­son Mo­hammed and Car­los Brath­waite al­so get­ting among the runs.

The right-hand­ed Chan­dri­ka, 25, was a mem­ber of the Guyana Jaguars squad which cap­tured the WICB PCL crown, scor­ing 525 runs at an av­er­age of 35.An open­er, Chan­dri­ka could be used to part­ner Kraigg Brath­waite at the top of the or­der.West In­dies face Aus­tralia in the open­ing Test at Wind­sor Park start­ing Wednes­day, with the sec­ond Test set for Sabi­na Park in Ja­maica on June 11.

CMC