World Cup 2019: West Indies Announce the Squad

West Indies is all set to start their World Cup 2019 campaign. The West Indies Cricket announced its World Cup squad for the World Cup 2019 on Thursday. The Caribbean side will face Pakistan in their first match on 31st May at Trent Bridge.

West Indies has never reached the semifinals of the world cup since 1996. The side had to play the qualifying rounds to qualify for the World Cup 2019. In 2015, they were defeated in the quarterfinals. It would be interesting to see how the team performs after winning the T20 World Cup in 2016.

Andre Russell has been selected for the 15-man squad for World Cup 2019. Russell has not played a single ODI since July 2018. Russell has been out of the ODI squad following a series of injuries and a one-year ban in 2017. But he has been in an incredible form in the ongoing IPL, with 392 runs in nine matches and at a mind-boggling strike rate of 218. The selectors have shown some faith in him after watching his performance at the IPL 2019.

“He’s scored a lot of runs and we’ll be using him as a batting all-rounder,” the interim head coach said on Russell.

Two young players Shimron Hetmyer and Oshane Thomas also make it to the World Cup 2019 squad. The two have been one of the promising players for West Indies in the recent years. Hetmyer is known for his quick knocks while Thomas looks like the next big star in the West Indian fast bowling attack.

While some inexperienced players are included in the side, there were some experienced players to balance out the side. Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, and Evin Lewis were also selected for the 15-man squad. Chris Gayle would be playing the last world cup of his career. The left-hander has been in an incredible form in 2019, hitting 424 runs with an average of 106.

“If you look at his track record, he’s done very well opening the batting with Chris Gayle and we believe that he’s somebody we are going to see progress as the tour goes on, ” said Haynes – Interim Chairman of CWI.

There are other big players like Kieron Pollard, Devendra Bishoo and Sunil Narine who were not selected for the World Cup 2019 squad. Kieron Pollard had shown some hints about what he is capable of in the current IPL season with his good form. But the Carribean star was not selected for the squad. While Devendra Bishoo has ignored, Sunil Narine missed out due to injury concerns. Also, fast bowler Alzarri Joseph misses out due to a shoulder injury.

“We had a lot of dialogue with Sunil Narine. He assured that he would have loved to play in the World Cup but unfortunately, he has an injured finger. He’s getting treatment after every game in IPL and he’s not capable at the moment to bowl 10 overs. He’s struggling to bowl even four overs in the IPL, “ said Haynes on Sunil Narine.

West Indies are set to play a tri-series in Ireland, also featuring Bangladesh. But the director West Indies cricket, Jimmy Adams said that the 15-man squad had been fixed and will not be changed unless there are injuries.

The 15-man squad for West Indies for World Cup 2019 is as follows.

Batsmen – Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (WK).

All-Rounder – Jason Holder (C), Andre Russell, Carlos Braithwaite, Fabian Allen.

Fast Bowler – Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel.

Spin Bowler – Ashley Nurse.