The West Indies will benefit from the return of Fabian Allen and Denesh Ramdin when they go to India for a T20I series.
Allen is said to be fully recovered from a hamstring strain which put him out of the West Indies 2-1 loss to Afghanistan in Lucknow, India recently.
Ramdin played part of the series as well but had to be replaced by Shai Hope after he also went down due to hamstring issues.
The Kieron Pollard-led squad has retained newcomers Hayden Walsh Jr and Brandon King, with an eye firmly on the T20 World Cup next year.
Andre Russell continues to be missing from both the ODI and T20I squads although the all-rounder, plagued with knee injuries, was fit enough to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 recently.
According to West Indies coach Phil Simmons, who marked his return to the post with a successful series against Afghanistan, India is expected to provide more of a challenge than did Afghanistan and is a good way to continue to test the ‘newbies’ in lieu of the T20 World next year.
“We have three matches in each format, so we wanted to give each squad a chance to compete against India,” said Simmons.
“No disrespect to Afghanistan, but facing India will be a more difficult series. Our players really got the hang of things, with the 3-0 series win in the ODIs [against Afghanistan], and I believe we will move from strength to strength,” he added.
According to Simmons, the battle for places in the T20I squad will heat up and everybody should be given a fair chance to show what they are made of.
“In the T20s this will be another chance for them to play and develop, and again, with no disrespect to Afghanistan, this should be a stronger T20 country and we will look to see how they perform against India. The next ICC T20 World Cup is in Australia and the one after that is here in India so there is a lot of preparation to be done for first for Australia. We have given the players here a chance in this series and we know we have players outside who may be coming in later on as well, so it’s good to give those here another opportunity.”
The T20I series begins in Hyderabad on December 6. There are two further T20Is, in Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai, before three ODIs in Chennai, Vizag and Cuttack.
T20I squad: Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Keemo Paul, Khary Pierre, Kieron Pollard (capt), Nicholas Pooran, Denesh Ramdin, Sherfane Rutherford, Lendl Simmons, Hayden Walsh Jr, Kesrick Williams
ODI squad: Sunil Ambris, Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Keemo Paul, Khary Pierre, Kieron Pollard (capt), Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh Jr. (www.sportsmax.tv)