West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Selection Panel Tuesday announced the West Indies squad for the first three Digicel One Day Internationals against Australia to be played on March 16, 18 and 20 at the Arnos Vale Cricket Ground in St Vincent.
Darren Sammy will lead the team with Denesh Ramdin as vice-captain. The other players are Tino Best, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell and Marlon Samuels.
Commenting on the squad, Chairman of the WICB Selection Panel Clyde Butts confirmed that Ravi Rampaul was sidelined with illness, while openers Lendl Simmons (finger) and Adrian Barath (finger) are injured.
“They will be sorely missed because they were two of our most consistent players in this format of the game over the last year,” he said.
Butts was, however, upbeat about the inclusion of opener Johnson Charles, as well as the recall of Tino Best and return of experienced all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.
“Johnson has shown marked improvement in his batting and deserves another opportunity at international level,” he said.
“Tino over the last two years has been very consistent with his performance in the shorter format of the game, and Dwayne looks like he has returned to form and has been consistent, plus his on-field experience will be of value to us,” he said.
Butts noted that fast bowler Fidel Edwards was not considered for selection in this Digicel ODI series.
“Fidel is being considered for two formats of the game at this time – Tests and Twenty20s,” said Butts.
“It is all about workload management as we approach a long and demanding schedule of cricket, so we have to handle him with care, considering the injury problems which he has had in the past.”