Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a name that most cricket fans from the 90s and the 2000s will never forget. His unique stance and signature stickers underneath the eyes will always be remembered along with the hours and hours which he tormented bowlers from all around the globe in red ball cricket. After representing the West Indies for 21 years in the longest format of the game, he called it a day in 2015 against England, the same opposition he made his debut against.
Seven years after the great Chanderpaul retired from international cricket, we are fortunate to see shades of Shiv once again through his son Tagenarine Chanderpaul who finally made his test debut against Australia last week. Chanderpaul junior was picked to the side after a strong first-class season where he made 439 runs. The 26-year-old scored a century in his first knock for West Indies in a tour game against Australia Prime Minister’s XI. On test debut, the resemblance between him and his father while batting took a lot of cricket fans down memory lane.
In his debut inning, Chanderpaul jr scored a well-made half century against a strong Australia pace attack which included the invincible pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins along with the spin master Nathan Lyon. He followed up the 51 in the first knock with another solid 45 although it was not enough to save the game for the Windies. The men from the Caribbean islands lost the series 2-0 but Tagenarine certainly managed to make a name for himself scoring 160 runs in the 4 innings while opening the batting. Only skipper Kraigg Brathwaite scored more runs than him for the West Indies during the two games.
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There’s a lot to improve for the youngster but when you look at him you can see he is a fighter, just like his father. For the last decade or so, West Indies have failed to find a proper opening partner to complement Brathwaite and Tagenarine may just be the answer they were looking for.
Tagenarine’s name first made rounds in mainstream media when he was picked for the West Indies Under 19 squad for the Youth World Cup in 2014. He ended the tournament scoring 293 runs in 6 games, the 5th highest in the whole tournament and the 2nd most for the West Indies, just 10 runs behind Nicholas Pooran.
Tagenarine, who made his first-class debut for Guyana as a 17-year-old also had the rare opportunity of playing alongside his father. In fact, during Shiv’s last List A fixture and first class fixture in the West Indies, the father-son duo played together. In both the games the duo batted together as well for brief moments.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul showed he has the potential and the talent to carry West Indies for the next decade or so, especially in red ball cricket, but whether he can replicate what his father did is a question for another day. Shivnarine Chanderpaul finished with 11,867 test runs in 164 games with a staggering average of 51.37, so let’s see where Tagenarine Chanderpaul finishes when he decides to hang up his boots, but until then let us soak in the nostalgia watching him bat.
