London, May 17 (IANS/CMC) Batting legend Brian Lara has predicted a tough England series for the West Indies and says veteran left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul needs to bat higher in the team in order to strengthen an otherwise inexperienced line-up.
Lara, the former linchpin of the Caribbean side's batting, said Chanderpaul's move up the order would help put the Windies in winning positions rather than his current role of salvaging matches.
He also described the current team as having fight and said they had the ability to spring a surprise.
"It is something I've not talked in public about but I would want to know why. If he (Chanderpaul) can be so consistent, why he wouldn't say, 'let me bat with some more experienced, talented players up the order'," Lara told British newspapers here.
"That's not only going to benefit him but it would help the team. Your best batter is going to be at number three - he is the one who is going to lay the foundations to win a match. If your best batter is coming in at five, repairing damage, I don't understand the logic in it."
West Indies captain Darren Sammy Wednesday said Chanderpaul's move up the order had been discussed but no firm decision had been made on the issue.
"It is something we've spoken about with Shiv as well but he's been doing a fantastic job at number five as well," said Sammy.
"At the end of the day, we'll do what's best for the team. Everybody might have their opinion as to what we should do. Shiv is a very experienced campaigner and I guess he will think about it and see what's best for the team."
He added: "He has (gotten comfortable at number five) and he has been doing excellently in that position as well. We're tempted to do a lot of things but at the end of the day whatever we do, we just have to do it well and execute and hopefully we can put some pressure on England."
Chanderpaul is by far the side's most experienced player with 140 Tests and 10 055 runs, putting him only behind Lara has the most successful run-getter in West Indies history.
However, he has gathered most of his runs batting down the order in a side that once boasted Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Lara in the top order.
In the last series against Australia, he mustered 346 runs to move back to the top of the International Cricket Council Test batting rankings.
--IANS/CMC
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