India have yet to find the right pair of openers for the third cricket Test against West Indies, starting in Barbados on Thursday. The tourists tried different pairs of openers in the first two Tests, withSS Das partnering Deep Dasgupta at Georgetown and Sanjay Bangar at Port-of-Spain. They failed on both the occasions: the highest stand for the opening wicket was just 18 in three innings, between Das and Bangar in the second Test.

Wasim Jaffer, the only specialist opener besides Das, was dropped from the Test team after scoring 46 runs in two Tests against Hansie Cronje's South Africans at home in 2000. Both Jaffer and Dasgupta, however, pressed their Test claims with half-centuries against Busta XI in a drawn three-day match here.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, however, was still undecided over Das's partner. "It's a good chance for either Jaffer or Dasgupta to play in the third Test," said Ganguly, whose team lead the five-Test series 1-0 following a 37-run victory in the second match.

"Both of them will be in the mind when we pick the squad for the third Test," said Ganguly. "Both scored half-centuries here, but Wasim played the fast bowlers early in his innings. A half-century is a half-century."

Busta skipper Ridley Jacobs rested key fast bowler Pedro Collins and legspinner Dinanath Ramnarine after both of them had been named in the team for the third Test. Collins bowled just four overs and Ramnarine 10.

Allrounder Bangar is likely to find it difficult to retain his opening slot after scoring nine and 16 in the second Test. He also failed here, contributing just one.

"Bangar batted in the middle in the first innings, but didn't get a chance in the second. We wanted to give (Ajay) Ratra an opportunity in the second," said the Indian captain. Wicketkeeper Ratra scored an unbeaten 29, sharing an unfinished 55-run partnership for the third wicket with Dasgupta.

Ganguly said he was not worried over his team's batting failure in the first innings of the tour game. "We failed only in one innings, but batted well in the second. I don't think the batting is a worry."

The tourists were shot out 150 in the first innings in reply to Busta XI's 437, with middle-order batsman Dinesh Mongia the lone impressive performer scoring 67.

They failed to avoid a follow-on, but did better in the second innings, reaching 158 for 2. "I think Mongia will probably find it difficult to find a place in the middle-order," said Ganguly.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd