St John’s (Antigua): West Indies have named three uncapped players in their 12-man squad for the first Test match against Bangladesh, set to be played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium from June 16 to 20.
The uncapped players are wicket-keeper batter Devon Thomas, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie and fast bowler Anderson Phillip. Thomas has played 21 ODIs and T20Is while Motie has so far played one T20I and was a reserve for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates last year.
On the other hand, Phillip was in the squad throughout the recent Test Series victory against England, but has not made his debut to date. He has featured in three ODIs, including last week’s 3-0 series win against the Netherlands and is in the ODI squad for the ongoing ODI series in Pakistan.
Experienced right-hander Kraigg Brathwaite will captain West Indies during the two-Test series, with veteran seamer Kemar Roach still a chance to be included as the 13th player if he can pass a fitness test on the hamstring injury he picked up while playing County cricket in England.
However, West Indies will be without the services of senior allrounder Jason Holder after he’d requested for a break while batter Tagernarine Chanderpaul and pacer Shermon Lewis remain in the Test squad as reserves.
“Allrounder Jason Holder is unavailable for selection as CWI has granted his request for a period of rest and recovery. He will therefore miss Bangladesh’s all-format tour of the West Indies,” said a statement from Cricket West Indies (CWI).
Lead selector Desmond Haynes is looking forward to seeing some new faces in the opening Test and believes all three players will acquit themselves well if selected.
“Devon Thomas has been knocking on the door for quite some time. He has done extremely well in our franchise cricket system and we view this as a good opportunity to give him a go,” Haynes said.
“You would notice that Raymon Reifer is also in the squad. He is another person that has done impressively well in the four-day competition and against England (earlier this year). So again, we are giving opportunities to guys who are performing. We think Gudakesh Motie is one of those guys who is also bowling well, and we think it will be a good opportunity for him to be involved,” he added.
West Indies currently sit in sixth place on the World Test Championship standings and badly need to pick up some points against Bangladesh at home to have any chance of featuring in next year’s final.
“We are looking to pick up World Test Championship points against Bangladesh which will be very important. It would be good for us to use our home advantage to win both Test matches and collect those points,” Haynes noted.
West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, John Campbell, Joshua Da Silva, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Anderson Phillip, Raymon Reifer, Jayden Seales, Devon Thomas. Reserves: Tagernarine Chanderpaul, Shermon Lewis
–IANS