BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Fast bowler Ravi Rampaul is expected to be fit enough to take his spot in the West Indies squad for the Australia tour, despite being ruled out of Trinidad & Tobago’s clash with Barbados last weekend through illness.
The 25-year-old was named in the final XI for the third round WICB regional first class match at Kensington Oval but was sidelined by a stomach bug for the entire game and did not bowl or bat.
However, a West Indies team official said Monday that Rampaul had recovered significantly and would be taking his spot in the squad which leaves for Australia tomorrow.
Rampaul was part of a 15-man squad selected for the one-day tour Down Under which comprises five One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals.
Thirteen members of that squad are expected to fly out from here to join captain Chris Gayle and vice-captain Dwayne Bravo who are already in Australia.
Both players stayed on after the three-Test tour which ended last December to campaign in the Twenty20 Big Bash eventually won by Bravo’s Victoria Bushrangers.
West Indies 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.