Unsmiling assassin targeting Test debut

A teenage fast bowler recently likened to sprint king Usain Bolt by Australia's caretaker coach Justin Langer is in line to make his Test debut this weekend.

Nineteen-year-old quick Alzarri Joseph has been called into a 14-man West Indies squad for the second Test against India, starting at Sabina Park in Kingston on Saturday.

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Joseph, who hails from Antigua, was a key figure in the West Indies' victory at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year and has impressed in his limited domestic career so far, taking 24 wickets in eight first-class matches, including two five-wicket hauls.

And he caught the eye of Langer during Australia's Qantas Tour of the West Indies in June, when the towering quick served the role of a net bowler when the tourists were in St Kitts.

"He ran in like Usain Bolt, bowled for about an hour-an-a-half … he's a beautiful athlete and he bowled fast," Langer said after Australia's victory in the ODI tri-series final in Barbados.

"He's big and tall and reminds me of Andre Russell. 

"He bowled fast and beautiful yorkers. And what an athlete."

Langer is not the first Test legend to note Joseph's raw talent, with fellow Antiguan quicks Sir Curtly Ambrose and Sir Andy Roberts both praising the young speedster.

And their country of birth isn't the only thing Ambrose and Joseph have in common, with the former Windies bowling coach saying of the young charge: "You don’t smile much (when you’re bowling) ... and I like that about you."

Joseph, whose bowling hero is South African Dale Steyn, impressed during the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, where he took 13 wickets at 14. He also bowled the fastest delivery of the tournament, a 143kph thunderbolt that destroyed the stumps of Zimbabwe batsman Brendan Sly.

And most encouraging of all for the Windies, the aggressive quick has his sights set firmly on red-ball cricket.

"I am not trying to look at T20 cricket at the moment," he told ESPN in January. "I am looking at Test cricket. I like it.

"As a fast bowler you want to have the upper-hand over the batsman so you will try to be as aggressive as you can be.

"I don't really try to hit a batsman but I let him know that I am there, so that the batsman doesn't really come after me. I would try to keep it simple."

Joseph wasn't the only young Windies quick to catch Langer's eye on the recent tour, with the Western Australia coach generous in his praise of the Caribbean's bowling talent.

"I'm in awe of how many young fast bowlers you've got in the West Indies," Langer said.

"There's so much fast bowling talent here. They're big, they're tall, they're beautiful athletes and they run in and bowl fast and they bowl all day.

"And I've seen them. I reckon we've seen four or five who have got really raw talent. And they kept bowling. That's what I loved. They just kept running in and bowling all day.

"In a lot of parts of the world now, it's so structured with workloads and bowling loads. But these kids just kept running in, bowling fast and it was bloody hot. 

"They gave our batsmen a workout and there's talent. The talent is obvious."

WEST INDIES SQUAD: Jason Holder (c), Kraigg Brathwaite (vc), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Rajindra Chandrika, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Alzarri Joseph, Leon Johnson, Marlon Samuels