ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Aggressive Barbadian batsman Dwayne Smith has been recalled to West Indies colours after a near three-year break, in a 15-man squad named yesterday for next month’s one-day tour of Australia.
The 26-year-old right-hander last played for West Indies in 2007 but has been overlooked since then because of poor form. He has since re-emerged with impressive showings in the game’s shortest forms for English county Sussex and Australian club New South Wales Blues.
Smith, who has played 71 One-Day Internationals and five Twenty20 Internationals, will be part of a squad which has been depleted by injury.
Senior players Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan have both been ruled out along with rookie batsman Adrian Barath and left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, all of whom contested the Test tour Down Under late last year.
“We are missing some key players due to injuries but this is an opportunity for other players to re-establish themselves,” said convenor of selectors, Clyde Butts.
“We have selected some all-rounders who we believe have the ability to be match-winners at the international level. Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard have been a bit disappointing in the past but they have displayed the ability to perform on the Twenty20 stage, and we think they will be major assets in the squad.”
Pollard joins Smith in earning a recall, having last played for the Windies during last year’s Twenty20 World Championship in England while Leeward Islands batsman Runako Morton is also back, after last wearing maroon colours in the ODI series against India last year July. Twenty four year-old all-rounder Lendl Simmons, overlooked following his outing in the T20 World Championship, also returns. While Chris Gayle will lead the squad, Trinidadian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has replaced Denesh Ramdin as vice-captain. “We believe the team will do very well in Australia in the 50-over format as well as the T20 Internationals,” Butts said. “We have faith in the players and we believe the team can beat Australia. Before we went to Australia for the Test matches, the team was not given a chance by many people but we saw how well they bounced backed after the first Test and challenged the Aussies in Adelaide.” West Indies will play five One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals on the tour which bowls off February 4.
They open their tour in Melbourne on February 7 and will play ODIs in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane before returning to Melbourne 12 days later. The two T20Is will be contested in Hobart and Sydney.
SQUAD – Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo (vice captain), Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Nikita Miller, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Gavin Tonge.
