Jacobs ruled out of Oval Test

GEORGETOWN: West Indies wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs will miss the Second Test between the West Indies and Australia due to a leg injury, team officials said yesterday.

A veteran of 48 Tests, Jacobs was ordered to rest what he had described as a groin injury sustained Thursday while attempting a sweep shot off the bowling of Australian leg spinner Stuart McGill during his unbeaten innings of 54. The Second Test starts at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago on April 19.

In Jacobs’ place should come Carlton Baugh, the diminutive 21-year-old Jamaican who represented the West Indies “B” team in this year’s Carib Beer Cup, the premier annual regional tournament. The selectors had named Baugh in the squad of 14 to oppose Australia in the four-Test series as an apparent understudy to Jacobs, 35. Jacobs is to fly to Trinidad and Tobago today for an evaluation. Officials said he would bat only if necessary in the second innings of the First Test. Opener Wavell Hinds has been acting for Jacobs in the match so far.