Samuels and Smith find a berth

Tony Cozier reckons Marlon Samuels's selection as most interesting © Getty Images

Still influenced more by allround potential than actual performance, the West Indies selectors yesterday included Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith in their 15 for the three Tests tour of Australia October 27 to November 29. The squad was revealed on several radio stations on internet sites while the media awaited the official announcement from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

Samuels, 24, and Smith, 22, both had exciting debuts when first brought into the Test team but their careers have since had as many stops and starts as a maxi-taxi at rush-hour. Their selections are likely to have been advanced most strongly by head coach Bennett King. It is a clear challenge for him and his staff to mould their precocious talent into the finished product, just as Duncan Fletcher and his men have done with Andrew Flintoff, a kindred spirit on the England team. Their native Australia is an ideal starting point. Eight of those who withdrew from the team to Sri Lanka in July and August because of the long-running dispute over tour contracts have predictably returned following the compromise agreement between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).

Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore bring experience and, in Lara's case, extraordinary class to a team left emaciated by their controversial absence in Sri Lanka. Lara, at 36 still at the height of his powers, is on his fourth tour of Australia, Shivnarine Chanderpaul on his third. Both as batsmen with outstanding records and as leaders, they carry heavy responsibility in a series against opponents keen to reassert their dominance after their loss of the Ashes in England in the summer. The two have been on opposite sides of the fence in the contracts dispute, Chanderpaul assuming the captaincy when Lara opted out of the first Test against South Africa last April and standing against the WIPA position to lead the team of reserves to Sri Lanka. How they relate to each other and the guidance each gives to the younger members will be a critical factor in determining how the team performs on the field. Runs from both and more consistency from Sarwan, the lone right-hander in the top six, Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Devon Smith is another key factor to being competitive. Constrained by the absence of reputable spinners, the selectors have stuck to the established policy of an attack of five fast bowlers supplemented by the bustling medium-pace of the two Dwaynes, Bravo and Smith, and the stop-gap off-spin of Samuels and Gayle.

Jermaine Lawson, his questionable action now cleared by the ICC, is the tallest and fastest of the speed men. Providing he overcomes a recent minor heel operation, as he is expected to, he should be a handful for Australian batsmen, as he was the last time they met (7-78 in Antigua in 2003) and as he was against the Sri Lankans in July (11 wickets in two Tests). Tino Best and Daren Powell gave him telling support in Sri Lanka and the pacy Edwards (6-38 against Pakistan in his last Test) and the wily Collymore (11-134 in his last) are back to challenge for Test places. All are right-handers. The injury that has eliminated Pedro Collins' left-arm swing is a setback and would have brought two other left-handers, Ian Bradshaw and Deighton Butler, into consideration.

The most interesting choices are Samuels and Smith. Samuels, the elegant right-hander, headed the batting averages in Tests when despatched as replacement for the injured Chanderpaul in the 2000-01 series in Australia. He was aged 19 with one first-class match to his name. A knee injury and inconsistency have combined to limit him to 19 Tests in the interim, the last two years ago against Sri Lanka. He averages 29.13 with a solitary hundred, a classical 104 against India at Kolkata in 2002 that highlighted his obvious natural talent. Smith's entrance was even more spectacular - 100 off 93 balls against South Africa at Cape Town on debut. Such devastation has been beyond him in his six subsequent Tests in which he has failed to pass 50 as opponents exploited a slack defence Ryan Hinds, the left-handed batsman and spinner, is another player who has not delivered on his early promise. He has had only nine Tests since his first appearance in 2002 and has drifted further out of consideration. Given the role Ashley Giles' left-arm spin played in England's Ashes triumph over Australia in the summer, delivered from over the wicket and aimed outside the right-hander's leg-stump, Hinds could have been a key all-rounder at No.6 had the selectors been able to rely on his fitness.