SYDNEY — West Indies will not be able to match host Australia by playing two spinners in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Devendra Bishoo was ruled out of the dead rubber contest by a shoulder injury Saturday.
Leg-spinner Bishoo, who took 6-80 against the Australians in the Caribbean last year, had been in the frame for a recall to work in tandem with inexperienced left-arm orthodox bowler Jomel Warrican.
Team officials said an injury to the 30-year-old Guyanan’s left rotator cuff he sustained before the second test in Melbourne would prevent him playing on a track that Australia expect to provide plenty of turn for their spinners Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keefe.
“I’ve seen they’ve gone with two spinners, we’ve been accustomed to spin-bowling in the Caribbean and hopefully our batsmen can get into that a lot better than we have in this series,” captain Jason Holder told reporters at the SCG on the eve of the opening day of the match.
“We’re down to one spinner with the injury to Bishoo so we just have to work with what we have. I’m sure Kraigg Brathwaite will come to the fore and bowl a bit more.”
Brathwaite offers occasional off breaks in addition to his opening batting but neither looks likely to redress the balance between the two sides after two thoroughly one-sided matches in the series so far.
While the batsmen showed more resistance in the 177-run loss in Melbourne last week than they had in the innings and 212-run defeat with which they opened the series in Hobart, the West Indies bowling has remained largely ineffective.
A tally of 10 wickets taken over two Test matches offered not even a distant echo of the days when the likes of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose struck fear in the hearts of batsmen.
All-rounder Holder must take his share of the blame for that but it would take a hard heart not to feel some sympathy for a man thrown into the Test captaincy at the age of 23 last year.
O’Keefe replaces Siddle
Stephen O’Keefe was named Saturday in a two-prong spin attack in Australia’s side.
O’Keefe replaces injured paceman Peter Siddle in the only change to the team that trounced the Windies by 177 runs in Melbourne to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Siddle has not recovered from an ankle injury he sustained in the Melbourne Test and was not 100 percent fit for Sunday’s final Test, skipper Steve Smith said.
“He (Siddle) felt it wasn’t best for him to come into this Test match the way he is at the moment,” Smith told reporters at the ground.
“We were probably going to go the two spinners option anyway.”
Smith said Australia had gone with the twin spin option as he expected the Sydney Cricket Ground pitch to turn.
“The wicket looks dry so I think it’ll take some spin,” he said.
O’Keefe will partner front-line spinner Nathan Lyon and the left-arm finger spinner said he was confident the pair could succeed bowling in tandem against the Caribbean tourists.
O’Keefe, 31, made one Test appearance against Pakistan in Dubai over a year ago, claiming four wickets in a 221-run loss.
He was named in Australia’s Test squad to travel to Bangladesh in October last year before the tour was canceled amid safety concerns.
O’Keefe has taken 17 wickets at an average of 25 in this season’s domestic Sheffield Shield, and was included in the Test squad for the first-ever Adelaide day-night Test last month before being released.
Allrounder Mitchell Marsh will provide the third seamer’s spot behind opening bowlers Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson in the Australia pace attack.
Australia team: David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (capt), Adam Voges, Mitch Marsh, Peter Nevill, Steve O’Keefe, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. — Agencies
